The Legend of Shukujo Kitsune and Shukujo Inu: The Prequel
by proton104
Summary: This is a Prequel to a story about the adventures of Takara Namikaze (Naruko U./OC) and Hana Inuzuka. Minato and Kushina will survive, Anko will be slight OOC, Kakashi x Rin, Kenpachi (Slight OOC) x Retsu, other parings to follow as the story progresses. M rating for blood, guts, gore, course language, and adult themes/situations. REWRITE in Progress. Slow updates.
1. Bloodlines

**A/N: So, after a lot of consideration and many hours of contemplation, I have decided to turn this, what was originally supposed to be an "Introduction to How I am Messing with the Worlds of Bleach, Naruto, and Rurouni Kenshin" Arc, into a full-fledged story that will be a prequel to my Naruko/Hana Story. Sorry for the long time to have this happen, but I tend to be rather stubborn at times.**

 **A few things to get out of the way:**

 **1\. I will be working on more chapters of this story, so I ask all of you to be patient.**

 **2\. As I said, I am turning this into a full-on story with it's own arcs.**

 **3\. I will be messing with the world of Naruto pretty hard.**

 **4\. Be patient. I update very slowly so I ask for patience.**

 **Speech/Thoughts Key:**

"This is my inside voice!" - Normal Speech

 _I don't think shouting counts as an inside voice_ \- Normal thoughts

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, Bleach, or Rurouni Kenshin, otherwise this might have been the actual story.**

 **Final Note: If you don't enjoy my story, go read someone else's. There are plenty out there.**

* * *

 **Bloodlines**

* * *

In the Land of Fire there exists the Hidden Village of the Leaf or Konoha, and this village is the home of the majority of the military power of the Land of Fire, ninja or shinobi and guardians or samurai. The shinobi use their physical energy, or chakra, to perform techniques, or jutsu, using the elements of earth, fire, lightning, wind, and water. Their discipline is broken down into three basic areas: taijutsu (physical combat techniques), genjutsu (illusionary or ocular techniques), and ninjutsu (ninja techniques that include elemental type attacks and other sub-disciplines). The shinobi are the more numerous of the two groups, not just in Konoha but across the world.

The other group, the guardians or samurai use their spiritual power or reietsu to fight, perform their techniques in one of three disciplines: kidoh (guardian techniques broken down into two categories: hakudoh (destructive techniques) and bakudoh (binding techniques)), kendo (sword combat using their zanpaktou (soul blade)), and taijutsu (hand to hand combat techniques).

Both groups act as one to defend the Land of Fire, often with samurai and shinobi assigned to the same teams under the leadership of either a samurai or shinobi.

The village of Konoha was more of a small city nestled against the base of a mountain range that stretched the breadth of the Land of Fire from north to south and guarded the eastern half of the village from approach while the western half of the village was guarded by a massive two hundred foot tall wall that was over six feet thick and formed a half circle connecting to the mountains at the northern and southern extremes of the village. The face of the cliff facing the village had a carved relief of the first three leaders of village and combined shinobi/samurai force, men who had been known by the title of Hokage.

Nestled in one part of Konoha was a large compound that resembled that of a feudal Japanese lord's with several houses and buildings of various uses arranged in what could almost be considered a miniature village and all of this encompassed by a ten foot high wall with a single gate that granted access to the clan's miniature village. Emblazoned on both halves of the main gate into the complex was a stylized dragon's head in silhouette with what looked like a three point star for its eye shaped like an inverted 'Y' and below the stylized leaf emblem that was the symbol of the village. This complex belonged to the Shihoin Clan, the strongest clan of samurai in the village. In the training room of the main house that sat in the center of the clan's complex, a man and a young boy were sparring in front of others from the branch families within the clan wearing only the bottoms of their shihakushos or combat uniforms.

* * *

 **Father vs. Son**

 **Kenpachi**

The electric lights in the room were dimmed so that only the two in the center of the rectangular polished wood floor were visible and even then, their features cast in harsh, angular shadows. The father stood just four inches shy seven feet tall with a broad, powerful frame taut with lean, wolf-like, muscle in what could easily be described as a brawler's build crisscrossed with scars from past battles, shoulder length black hair just beginning to gray at the temples and was almost always kept up in spikes like a crown resting on the back of his head, thin eyebrows set above a pair of eyes that were a coal black, a hooked nose that was permanently set at a slight angle to one side after having been broken so many times, a sharp chin at the end of a strong jaw line, the right side of his face bisected by a scar that went from hairline to jaw line and a ready grin that was more often-than-not described as maniacal or sadistic. He couldn't help it, he loved the thrill of battle, of facing someone who was strong enough to fight him on even footing, like right now, facing an opponent whose worth he was testing in battle in its most basic form: hand-to-hand combat or taijutsu. His name was Kenpachi Shihoin and he was the current leader of the Shihoin Clan.

Kenpachi stood at one end of the training room in his taijutsu stance with his feet shoulder-width apart forming an 'L'-shaped stance with his knees bent and left foot forward, his left hand extended at an angle above his left knee in a loose, open-palm where the fingers could be closed to form a fist or opened to form a knife-hand and his right forearm and hand held parallel to the floor a little away from his body to protect his midsection. He stood there, perfectly still, his muscles loose and relaxed, and his eyes focused on his son and eldest child that stood at the opposite end of the room in the same stance with the boy's eyes a shade or two darker than his mother's midnight blue to be a midnight blue still held the light of innocence whereas Kenpachi's held the cold and calculating intelligence borne from the experience of countless battles.

Kenpachi studied his son. The boy stood a little over five feet tall at the tender age of twelve with a body that already promised to get close to his father in height and breadth but would never match it because the boy's mother, Retsu, who was sitting to Kenpachi's left with their six year old daughter, Shukaku, in her lap in the place of honor and stood more than a foot shorter than Kenpachi with a petite frame, taut with lean muscle.

Kenpachi's reflections were cut short as a flicker of movement across the room and the barest sound as his son suddenly disappeared and reappeared behind and above Kenpachi, trying to gain an advantage in their fight. Kenpachi spun and blocked the axe kick aimed for the back of his neck with his left forearm, the impact of the kick sent a shockwave up his arm to his shoulder. Kenpachi smiled as he thought to himself as he looked up at his son, _shunpo at age twelve. My, my I am going to have to start taking you seriously, my son_ …

* * *

 **Retsu**

Retsu hid a smile as she watched her only child, Kenshin Shihoin, used flash step (shunpo) to get behind and above her husband to try to attack him from behind. Kenpachi responded nearly as fast, spinning on the ball of his left foot to both put space between him and Kenshin and to block the attack. A blast of air from the force of impact sent the clothing of all present ruffling and the candles that were burning in the candle holders in the corners of the room flickering. The two were locked in that position for a moment before the two disappeared and reappeared at opposite ends of the room again. The two of them used shunpo again to meet in the middle of the room as kicks, fists, knee and forearm strikes were being met with blocks, parries, and counters. She and the rest of those present watched the ebb and flow of the fight between her husband and only child as they used the Shihoin Clan's taijutsu and shunpo to engage, each trying to gain an advantage over the other, but neither being able to. Next to Retsu, Soi Fon fidgeted as they watched the two of them. Retsu could not blame her or the others for being restless, after all Retsu's husband and son had been battling for over an hour. She was about to call for an end to the sparring match when her husband and son used flash step at the same moment to end up facing each other with their left arms outstretched in a knife hand poised at the side of each other's throats, their chests heaving and sweat beading, a perfect draw.

Retsu was the first to start clapping softly but soon the rest of the clan members that were present joined in. At a signal from her, one of her servants was about to hand Kenshin a towel when Soi Fon intercepted the servant so that she could hand it to Kenshin as another one handed a second towel to Retsu who then handed it to her husband. Retsu felt her heart skip a beat as Kenpachi locked eyes with her and gave her his devilish half-smile that he saved just for her and said in his usual deep growling voice, "Thank you, Retsu-chan. So what do you think of our son?"

Retsu gave her husband the smile she saved just for him, "He's faster than I was at his age and will only get faster as he gets older. He's nearly as strong as you even now."

Kenpachi grunted, "Yeah, the dragon spirit of his zanpaktou is even more powerful than mine. He definitely is partnered with one of the Five. In time, his strength will eclipse mine and maybe even the old man's. We just need to make sure his zanpaktou training goes well."

Retsu nodded and was about to say something when one of the servants, a young girl named Nora approached and bowed, "Excuse me, milord and lady, dinner is prepared and ready. Also we have guests."…

* * *

 **The Next Morning**

 **Graduation**

 **Kenshin**

The next day, Kenshin arrived at his friend, Kakashi Hatake's apartment, which was located in one of the more centrally located neighborhoods in the village and was on the third floor of the apartment building, just as the sun was turning the eastern sky, still over an hour and a half before the last day of the academy would start. True, it was only a graduation test and receiving their Konoha hitai-ates, marking them as genin shinobi or samurai, but it never paid to be late and Kakashi had a knack for either showing up either just on time for class or even late if Kenshin didn't come wake him up on time. Kenshin knocked on his friend's door for the third time as he raised his voice, "Oi, Kakashi, let's go, time to get up."

Kenshin heard someone stirring inside. Kenshin moved over to the balcony at one end of the hallway and rested his elbows on the rails, watching as the sun rose over the mountains, backlighting the stone sculptures of the first three Hokages, the Third Hokage Sarutobi-sama, being the current Hokage and thought about his future. Today he would be receiving his head band with the Konoha stylized leaf on it. Today he would become a samurai, a guardian of the village.

The sun had completely cleared the horizon by the time he heard the door to Kakashi's place open, close, and the lock clicking back into place as his friend locked his apartment back up. Kenshin turned and studied his friend. Kakashi was the same height as Kenshin with a shock of naturally light gray hair that stood up at all angles, handsome features that he kept under a navy blue mask that covered the lower half of his face, beetle black eyes, a slender frame taut with lean muscle. He was wearing his usual dark blue loose-fitting short sleeve t-shirt with broad white stripes that went from the collar, over his shoulders, and down to the end of his sleeves, a sleeveless undershirt that was connected to the mask that he wore, loose fitting navy blue cargo pants with large pockets, and the toeless boots that were the typical footwear of almost everyone in the village. Kenshin remembered that Kakashi's father had been known as the 'White Fang of Konoha' until he had been branded a traitor after leading a team on a mission the year before the two of them entered the academy because he had abandoned the mission in order to protect his team from an ambush, but because of this act, the mission failed but the team had lived, and Kakashi's father branded a traitor. Kakashi's father ended up taking his own life rather than live with the shame. This had made Kakashi take the laws of being a shinobi as his guiding principles, causing him to become cold and standoffish towards others in their class. It had also sharpened Kakashi's focus into a razor's edge. In fact, Kenshin was probably the only one in their class that Kakashi let his guard down around and that fact had not escaped Kenshin's notice. Well, not the only one; there was a girl in their class that always seemed to make Kakashi nervous, which was a source of constant amusement for Kenshin. Kenshin asked, "So are you ready to go?"…

* * *

 **Kakashi**

Kakashi looked at his one true friend, Kenshin Shihoin. Kenshin always moved with an easy yet dangerous grace, he strongly resembled his father with the same mop of unruly black hair that he kept a little long and shaggy, his bangs partially hiding his midnight blue eyes and the back brushing the top of the collar of his kimono, whereas his father kept his long and spiked, strong and almost predatory features that could scare anyone, even his closest friends if he wore a certain grin that he had inherited from his father, and a broad, powerful frame that would fill out even more as the two of them grew up. Kakashi saw that Kenshin was wearing the traditional samurai shihakusho consisting of layered black over white kimonos tucked into the traditional wide legged black samurai pants gathered at the waist by the typical white obi, white socks, and straw sandals that went up the back of his ankles. On the left breast of the kimono was the stylized dragon with the three point star for its eye, the Shihoin crest, done in silver thread. Kakashi also saw that Kenshin was wearing his zanpaktou slid through his obi on his right hip, Kenshin being left handed. The sword featured an unadorned circular guard, black over black hilt, and a matte black sheathe. He also knew that Kenshin had several non-standard kunai (throwing knives) hidden up both sleeves and in a couple of easily reached spots on his person, Kenshin was never without a weapon.

Then there was the person standing next to Kenshin, his constant companion, training partner, and his bodyguard, Soi Fon, the last member of the Fon family, who had been a strong family of samurai in the village until the entire family had been killed, save for Soi Fon, who had been adopted into the Shihoin Clan. She was pixie like in size, standing a few inches shy of five feet tall with an hour glass frame to match her stature, lightly tanned skin, a beautiful round face that was almost fairy like in appearance with its small nose, thin lips, thin eye brows, and her raven black hair cut short save for two locks of hair that hung down to her narrow hips and were wrapped in white braided sleeves. Her eyes were coal black and held a deadly glimmer that caused most people to shy away from her to the point of moving to the opposite side of the street to walk to get out of her way. She wore a backless and sleeveless shihakusho with a white skin tight bodice underneath for decency, the typical white obi tied around her waist with her black over gold hilted kadochi-length zanpaktou slid through the back, the typical wide legged pants that were part of the shihakusho gathered at the middle of her shins by leggings that extended down over the traditional white socks, black slipper-like shoes, black arm sleeves that went from the middle of her biceps down to the backs of her hands and ending in loops that went around each of her middle fingers, she also had kunai sheathes hidden in easy to reach places on her person. All-in-all, Soi Fon looked the part of a bodyguard and they didn't even have their headbands yet.

He shrugged at Kenshin, "Sure, let's go."…

* * *

 **Kenshin**

The three of them made their way through the slowly awakening village on their way towards the academy. As they walked, the two of them talked about a lot of different things from how Kenshin's family was doing to which of the jounin in the village they would like to be grouped with, Soi Fon ever present to keep an eye out for any danger to Kenshin. Kakashi said as they were walking down a street that was flanked by shops that were just beginning to open for the day, "I think we'll get put with someone like the Yellow Flash, you know, Minato Namikaze-sama. With our ski-"

Kakashi was cut off as they heard someone running to catch up with them and a familiar girl's voice, "Kakashi-kun! Wait up!"

Kenshin hid a smile as his best friend rolled his eyes as they turned towards the source of the voice. When they saw who it was, it was all Kenshin could do to keep for laughing at Kakashi because all of a sudden what he could see of his friend's face went beet red because the girl was a girl that Kakashi had had a crush on since they entered the academy, Rin Nohara. She stood a few inches shorter than Kakashi and Kenshin with a slender, hour glass frame that was beginning to fill out in an alluring way, shoulder length brown hair that was allowed to fall freely, a beautiful round face with purple marks on her cheeks, brown eyes, and a ready smile.

Kenshin smiled, "Hello Rin-chan, how are you this morning?"

She returned his smile, "I'm doing well Kenshin, how about you?"

Kenshin responded, "A little sore, but otherwise great."

Before he could continue, Soi Fon cut in while literally stepping between Kenshin and Rin, "Kenshin sparred with his father for over an hour last night."

Rin didn't respond to what either of them said as she only had eyes for Kakashi, "And how are you this morning, Kakashi-kun?"

Kakashi stammered for a moment before he answered, "Uh…uh… fine, Rin-chan. Thanks for asking."

Kenshin looked at his friend, noticing that the usually cool Kakashi was unsettled around the beautiful Rin. Kenshin decided to save his friend from more discomfort, "Well shall we go?"

Kakashi nodded his agreement and his thanks to Kenshin and the four of them set off again. A short while later the four of them arrived in front of the Konoha Academy, the only school in Konoha that taught the children of the village the basics of being either a shinobi or samurai from the age of six to the age of twelve, at which point, the children that graduate are assigned to mentors who are senior jounin or captains, the highest rank a shinobi or samurai can achieve respectively without being named to the rank of Hokage.

The academy itself was a large school with several walled off yards that were used for various things from kunai and shuriken throwing practice at targets to sparring practice fields to exercise yards. The three friends entered the school and made their way to their classroom. Once they reached the classroom and slid open the door, they were greeted by the noise of the other students' conversations going on in the classroom. As they walked in, Kenshin surveyed the room.

The classroom was arranged in an auditorium-like set up with the teacher being down on the bottom floor with his desk tucked into one corner and a set of blackboards that stretched the width of the classroom, the students' desks were arranged in three rows front to back with two walkways between the rows and could seat a total of thirty-six hyperactive and easily distracted kids. Kenshin, Soi Fon, Rin, and Kakashi took their seats as their teacher Hiashi Hyuuga who was also the leader of the Hyuuga Clan of shinobi entered the room. He stood a good three inches over six feet with a slender frame taut with lean muscle, long raven hair that fell to his waist, strong features, and the tell-tale almost white eyes of the Hyuuga Clan walked into the classroom wearing the typical shinobi uniform of navy blue long sleeve shirt with the red swirl mark of friendship on each shoulder under a green pocketed and armored vest, navy blue loose fitting pants, and dark blue toeless boots that everyone in the village seemed to wear as well as the hitai-ate with the Konoha stylized leaf engraved in the metal plate in the center of the navy blue head band. Kenshin had to hide a smile as Hiashi-sensei looked up at him and the rest of the class and said, "Good morning class. As you know, today is the last day of your time at the academy. From today, all of you will be genin shinobi or unranked samurai. Tomorrow you will meet the shinobi or samurai who will be your mentors for the next several years."…

* * *

 **The Next Day**

 **Team Assignments**

 **Kenshin**

The next day, all of Kenshin and Kakashi's class were again in the classroom, but this time instead of waiting for classes to begin they were waiting for their teacher to come in and announce who would be grouped together in teams. They didn't have long to wait as Hiashi-sensei came into the room and said, "Good morning everyone, today is the last day that you will be in this classroom unless you come back here as instructors. So now I will announce the teams that you will be in and who your jounin mentors will be… Now, team three will comprise of Tier Harribel, Isane Kotetsu, Shizune Senju and your mentor will be Retsu Shihoin."

Kenshin frowned at the announcement, partially because he felt something he wasn't used to: a twinge of disappointment that a certain female samurai was not going to be on his team. His disappointment only lasted a moment however as he heard his name being called by Hiashi-sensei,"… team seven will comprise of Kenshin Shihoin, Kakashi Hatake, Rin Nohara, and Obito Uchiha. Your mentor will be Minato Namikaze."

Kenshin and Kakashi looked at each other, Kenshin trying to suppress a smile at the fact that the two of them, arguably the best fighters in the class, had been grouped together in the same team. Kenshin asked Kakashi as Hiashi-sensei continued to announce the teams, "Do you know the other two on our team?"

Kakashi nodded, "Yeah. Well you already know that Rin is a medical-nin who has been studying at the hospital with Lady Tsunade. Obito is sitting directly behind her with the goggles and is from a branch family of the Uchiha Clan. He didn't really impress in the taijutsu training and hasn't awakened the Sharingan yet. He is one of the weakest fighters in the class," he paused for a second before continuing, "Why did we get stuck with him? Rin, I can understand because she's our friend and a medic, but him…" Kakashi shook his head, "will be nothing but a burden."

Kenshin shrugged, "You never know Kakashi, he might turn out to be the strongest of the four of us with the right impetus," Kenshin's eyes narrowed as he studied Obito, "The way he stares at her is a little unsettling for someone who is supposed to be an Uchiha. He definitely has a crush on her."

Just then Hiashi-sensei said another name that got Kenshin's interest, "…Soi Fon, Rangiku Matsumoto, Gai Might, and Asuma Sarutobi. Your mentor will be Inoichi Yamanaka and you shall be known as Team Eight."

Next to Kenshin Soi Fon rolled her eyes, "Great, I'm stuck with a Kenshin Shihoin fan girl who is promised to another and the loudest, worst, and most obnoxious shinobi in our class. At least Asuma is strong."…

* * *

 **Tier**

Tier frowned behind the nose-high collar of her white zip-up half jacket that cut off just above her midrift, revealing the mesh armor shirt that she wore under her half jacket and low-hanging white hakama pants, which were also held up by a black obi tied at the waist. She was also wearing a black version of the samurai socks that all the other samurai in the class were wearing and the same white sandals as everyone else. She was thrilled that she was going to be teamed with her only friend in their class, Isane, but she was also disappointed because she wasn't on _his_ team. Her aqua eyes glided over to where he was sitting between his ever-present and frankly over-protective bodyguard, Soi Fon, and his best friend, Kakashi Hatake. Ever since their first day in the academy where he had stepped in to protect her from bullies in their class, Tier had been fascinated by the Shihoin heir. He had always put others before himself, never taking credit for things that he had done well, but anytime when someone in their class had done something to get the whole class in trouble, she had watched as Kenshin would always stand up and take the blame to protect their classmates. Something about that resonated deeply within her and had actually elicited the beginnings of the strange feelings that she felt right now. Feelings that would have her constantly glancing in his direction and wondering what it would be like to see him smile a genuine smile, not the fake smile that graced his features for the briefest of moments at times or the psychotic smiles that he wore during kenjutsu lessons that would scare everyone in the class, save for Tier, who found them oddly exciting.

Her frown turned into the smallest of smiles behind the collar of her jacket as she watched as Kenshin chuckled while continuing to tease his protector with brotherly affection, "So critical of fan girls, yet aren't you a bit of a fan girl yourself?"

She watched as Soi Fon gave Kenshin a hard look and answered in an equally hard tone, "No."

Tier saw that Kenshin's eyes held a glimmer of amusement, "Oh really? Is that why you keep trying to sneak glances of me while I am in the shower or asleep in bed and generally carrying on as a fan girl would?"

She watched as Soi Fon responded sheepishly as her face began to turn red, "I don't look at you like that. I am only trying to make sure you are safe."

Tier heard Kenshin chuckle again, "How is you sneaking into the family bath to watch me take a bath making sure that I am safe?"

At that comment, Tier felt instant hatred towards Soi Fon. She didn't know why or where those emotions came from, but suddenly Soi Fon was her least favorite person in their class because of her close proximity to Kenshin. She watched as Soi Fon elbowed him in the ribs for that, muttering the whole time about how she wanted to kill him when it was obvious to Tier and the other three that she was thinking about something else entirely. It was all Tier could do to keep from joining Kenshin, Kakashi, and Rin while they were laughing out loud, the three of them almost falling out of their seats with mirth, which caused Soi Fon's eye to start twitching as her face took on an exasperated look.

Soon enough their mirth subsided and the four of them began discussing their mentors to pass the time. As she continued to watch the four friends, Tier felt a jolt run through her as she suddenly found her aqua eyes locked with a pair of eyes that were of the darkest blue she had ever seen. She felt her breath catch and her heart stop for a moment before beginning to hammer the inside of her rib cage as she read the look in those eyes, a look that said that he wished he could just escape from everything and just be himself. It was the saddest look that she had ever seen and it nearly broke her heart to see it…

* * *

 **Kenshin**

As the hours had passed, the other jounin had come and picked up their teams, Inoichi coming to pick up Soi Fon's team as well as his own mother coming to pick up her team which included a certain female samurai with unruly blonde hair and a pair of intense aqua eyes, but team seven's captain hadn't shown himself. The time had given Kenshin plenty of time to study their other two teammates. Obito was a bundle of energy, first bouncing in his seat, then getting up and walking around the room several times before sitting down next to Rin and trying to talk to her. He was maybe an inch shorter than Kenshin and Kakashi with a medium build and the familiar Uchiha features of an angular nose, prominent cheek bones, and black eyes in a round face that still glowed with innocence, and black hair. He was wearing a gray long sleeved t-shirt under a blue open jacket that had a black collar and the Uchiha Clan crest on the back of his jacket, a fan that resembled a ping-pong paddle with the upper area red and the lower area of the fan and handle white, a set of white goggles that had orange-tinted lenses, black pants with bandages wrapped around his ankles and right thigh where his kunai holster would be, and black toeless boots. He was also wearing his Konoha headband in its traditional place on his forehead. Kenshin noticed that his movements were awkward and slow, not what he was accustomed to from the Uchiha Clan.

Kenshin then turned his attention to the female on their team, Rin Nohara. She was wearing a shirt of mesh armor under a purple shirt that matched the purple marks on her cheeks, more mesh armor under a short gray skirt that was split up the sides to allow her freedom of movement, bandages wrapped around her ankles and shins, and black toeless boots. Kenshin watched as she moved. He had always thought that everything she did was graceful, from bringing her left hand up to tuck her hair behind her ear so that she could shoot furtive glances over at Kakashi to the way that she shifted in her seat to turn her back to them when she was embarrassed or didn't want them to see how excited she was to be teamed with the guy that she and every other kunoichi in their class, save one, had a crush on, Kakashi Hatake.

Kenshin returned his attention to the Uchiha on their team, the puzzle, the wild card as he saw it, after all, he knew what Kakashi could do, the two of them had been training together since their first sparring match the first day of their first year in the academy, and he had a pretty good idea of what Rin would be able to do as a medical nin. The Uchiha Clan was one of the most powerful clans of shinobi in the village, their sharingan feared across the world. Sharingan was a technique known as kekki genkai, blood limit technique, which meant that it was passed down from generation to generation in a family. When a member of the Uchiha Clan activated Sharingan, it turned their eyes ruby red with either one, two, or three black tomoe shapes spaced equidistant around the pupil of the eye and connected by a black ring; the number of tomoe symbols depended on how much of their sharingan they had awakened. This ocular technique gave the user the ability to see through an opponent's techniques and attacks whether it was taijutsu, genjutsu, or ninjutsu, and would even allow them to copy the technique. It also granted the user access to several higher level genjutsus that were very effective at disabling or even eliminating opponents as well as giving almost every Uchiha an unrivaled control of katon or fire element ninjutsu techniques. A formidable blood limit technique, but it wasn't the only reason that the Uchiha were feared. Every member of the Uchiha Clan seemed to have amazingly deep chakra reserves that were only rivaled by that of the Hyuuga Clan and a nearly unrivaled control over katon, fire element techniques.

Kenshin watched as Obito grabbed a chair and one of the erasers from the chalk board, went over to the door of the classroom, climbed up on the chair, slid the door open just enough to wedge the eraser between the door and frame, then returned the chair to behind the teacher's desk, and with a self-satisfied grin, went and sat down next to Rin who asked, "Obito, what do you think you are doing?"

Obito gave her a winning smile, "It's our mentor's fault for being late. He deserves what he gets."

A moment later, the door slid open revealing a tall, slender man that was in his mid-twenties with golden-blonde hair that stood up at every angle with long sideburns that almost reached his chin, a handsome face with strong features, eyes the color of the sky on a clear day, and a ready smile. He was wearing the same standard issue shinobi outfit as Hiashi-sensei right down to the color of the cloth on his headband. This man was Minato Namikaze, the Yellow Flash of Konoha, so named for the teleportation jutsu that he had learned from the second hokage, improved it, and made it even more famous: Hiraishin No Jutsu (Flying Thunder God Technique). Kenshin watched in disbelief as the now-freed eraser dropped straight onto their mentor's head and impacted with a cloud of chalk dust exploding forth…

* * *

 **Minato**

Minato was intentionally late picking up his students; after all, he spent almost the entire morning with his girlfriend, well fiancée now, Kushina Uzumaki. As he approached the door to the classroom, he saw that the door had been propped open by a chalkboard eraser and decided to give his students a little show. He slid the door open and let the eraser drop and hit him in the head. He smiled inwardly as he remembered a similar prank that had been pulled by another impatient youth on a certain shinobi mentor all those years ago. After he made a show of dusting himself off, Minato surveyed his team: Obito Uchiha was easy to identify because of his energy and almost uniform Uchiha appearance, Rin Nohara, who he had seen at the hospital often enough learning the basics of shinobi combat medicine from Lady Tsunade herself, Kakashi Hatake, easily the most talented and promising young shinobi that had come along in a while, and the lone samurai in the team, Kenshin Shihoin with his black shihakusho and matching unkempt hair, his clan crest proudly displayed on the left breast of his kimono.

Minato took a moment and recalled what he knew about Kenshin's clan. The Shihoin Clan was easily the strongest clan of samurai in the village and that was largely due to their own kekki genkai, Tengan or Heavenly Sight. Tengan in principal was similar to the Uchiha Clan's Sharingan in that it changed the appearance of the user's eyes, molten silver with a black three point star within instead of the Sharingan's ruby red with black tomoe symbols and ring, and changed the way the user saw the world, but worked very differently. Tengan allowed the user to read the intentions of their opponents at the moment that they decided to act during combat, seeing the enemy's intentions as ghost-like shapes of their opponent diverging from the opponent and executing the move or attack or jutsu before the opponent even moved one muscle, a true combat precognition. It was also said that those who used Tengan couldn't be affected by genjutsu skills, gave them unmatched sensory ability, and also gained an unrivaled clarity on the battlefield. Also unlike the Sharingan which used chakra, the Tengan used reietsu, or spiritual energy, which was the power source for all samurai. The other thing that made the Shihoin Clan powerful was their pact with the Tenryuu, Heavenly Dragons, allowing the Tenryuu to inhabit the spirit of each new generation of Shihoin as the spirit of their zanpaktou. From what Minato understood about Kenshin's zanpaktou after speaking to Kenpachi and Retsu was that they believed that their son had been partnered with one of the Five Tenryuu Daimyos, Lords of the Heavenly Dragons, which meant that he would have almost limitless reietsu reserves.

Minato broke off his musings and looked at his four students and said, "My name is Minato Namikaze and I am going to be your mentor for the next few years. Why don't we go somewhere that's not so stuffy? Follow me please."…

* * *

 **Introductions**

 **Minato**

A little while later, the five of them were arranged in a circle sitting Indian style in the grass of one of the parks that were scattered around the village. Minato looked at his team and said, "Why don't you introduce yourselves a little so that I can get to know you a little better? Who wants to go first?"

Kenshin stirred with his sword resting across his lap, his voice already beginning to deepen, "My name is Kenshin Shihoin. Things that I like to do are meditating, training, hanging out with my best friend, spending time with my little sister Shukaku, and teasing my friend-slash-bodyguard Soi Fon mercilessly. My dream is to become the first samurai to become the leader of the elite ANBU force. For me there is no greater honor than the sacrifice of service: to my village, to my clan, to my team."

Kakashi spoke next, his voice sounding almost lazy, as if he found what they were doing boring, "My name is Kakashi Hatake. My dream is to restore the honor of my family name by being the greatest shinobi I can be. My best friend is Kenshin Shihoin. Those who betray the shinobi laws are scum in my opinion."

Minato thought to himself, _harsh Kakashi, but I can hardly blame you for that view given your family history. We will have to try to break you out of that robot personality._

The next to go was Rin, "Rin Nohara. I like to read, write, and do other fun stuff. My dream is to become as great of a medical-nin as Lady Tsunade and to find and marry a good man."

Minato noticed that her eyes locked on to Kakashi as she said the last part.

Then it was Obito's turn, his voice loud and somehow bringing forth all of the energy that he had, "Obito Uchiha. My dream is to become a great shinobi for the village. I like a lot of different things, too many to list."

Minato also noticed that Obito's eyes were locked onto Rin as he gave his little introduction. He made a mental note to keep an eye on _that_ situation as time went on. He then returned his attention to all four of them, "Alright, now I have a little more of an understanding of who each of you are, I guess it is my turn. My name is Minato Namikaze. My dream is to be as great a shinobi as I can be for my village and to protect all of those who are precious to me from harm. I am engaged to Kushina Uzumaki as of eight o'clock this morning. My favorite food is yakuniku (Japanese Barbeque) Rest and relax for the rest of the day because we have a training mission tomorrow. We will meet at Training Ground Seven tomorrow morning at zero-eight-hundred. Make sure that you bring all of your shinobi or samurai equipment that you will normally take on a mission and don't eat any breakfast. Any questions?"

Obito's hand shot in the air, "Sensei, why don't you want us to eat breakfast?"

Minato gave him a warm smile, "You'll see. Anything else," when no one else had any questions he said, "Alright, dismissed."

He watched as the four of them got up and left, Kakashi and Kenshin walking off together, already discussing what they wanted to do with the rest of the day, Rin chasing after them wanting to be involved, and Obito walking off in the direction of the Uchiha compound with a sad look on his face.

Minato then made his way through the village on the way to the house that he shared with his fiancée, thinking about how to proceed with training his team, both as a cohesive unit and individuals. He knew that he would have to ask Kenpachi about who would be a good teacher for Kenshin with his zanpaktou, but that could wait until after tomorrow's training session.

* * *

 **A/N: So, here we are with the first chapter of this "Rewrite" of my original "Introduction Arc" into an actual story. Hope you enjoyed it.**


	2. The Bell Challenge

**A/N: Here we go again! Chapter 2 is here! Thank you for those who at least read the first chapter of my story.**

 **1\. A Key for speech/thoughts seen in the story:**

 _Okay... that was awkward_ \- human thought

"Well... that was new." - human speech

 ** _So, we are going into the big, dark, and creepy forest... That has never ended badly for anyone..._** \- **Zanpaktou Spirit/Biiju/Summoned Creature Thoughts**

 **"And what do you think would happen... everyone throw you a party?"** \- **Zanpaktou Spirit/Biiju/Summoned Creature speech**

 **2\. Nope, still don't own Bleach, Naruto, Naruto Shippuuden, or Rurouni Kenshin**

 **And so, onto the story...**

* * *

 **The Bell Challenge**

* * *

 **Kakashi**

Kakashi was jolted awake by the heavy knock on his door and the muffled voice of his best friend, "Oi Kakashi, time to get up unless you want to be late for our first training mission."

Kakashi said loud enough for Kenshin to hear him outside, "Okay, okay. I'm up."

He rolled out of his bed and walked over to his sink, turned the water on and splashed some cold water on his face, looking into the mirror above the porcelain sink as the water dripped off of his face. Kakashi studied every drop of water as it slid down his face and dropped into the sink, thinking to himself, _today is the first step_.

Kakashi then moved over to his dresser and started getting dressed by pulling on his sleeveless undershirt that had a mask attached to it to cover the lower half of his face, his loose fitting t-shirt, wrapped the bandages around his lower legs, pulled on his pants, wrapped more bandages around his right thigh, put on his kunai sheathe over the bandages on his right thigh, buckling the strap on the inside of his thigh, picked up his equipment pouch and attached it to the back of his belt, he picked up his half sleeves that had armored plates that stretched from his elbows to the tops of his wrists along the back of his forearms, and pulled on his fingerless gloves that also had armored plates attached to them to protect the backs of his hands. He then moved over to the sword stand that sat in a place of honor in front of a picture of his father, Sakumo Hatake. Resting on the sword stand was the Hatake sword. It featured a black hilt wrapped in ash gray died leather, an ash gray sheathe, and no tsuba or guard. The blade of the sword is what made the sword special, it was made of a special metal that acted as a chakra amplifier, allowing the wielder to funnel their chakra through the blade and imbue it with whatever element chakra the wielder used. A very rare and special weapon and it had been the Hatake family's closest guarded secret for generations, as well as being the reason that Kakashi's father had been known as 'The White Fang of Konoha' before he was dishonored and took his own life. Kakashi picked it up and slid it into the carrier that he had had made for it that consisted of four straps that, when buckled would form an 'X' pattern in the middle of his chest. He then put the sword on and arranged it to where the hilt was in easy reach of his right hand.

He looked himself over in the mirror after he had put his headband on and walked to the front door of his apartment. He put his shinobi boots on and exited the apartment, locking the door behind him.

Kakashi heard Kenshin's voice behind and to his left as he locked the door to his apartment, "I never thought I would see the day when you would bring that sword out. You'll have to come over to the compound some time so that I could show you the basics."

Kakashi turned and looked at his friend. Kenshin had abandoned the formal shihakusho that he normally wore for a silver-trimmed black duster coat that fell to his ankles with a split down the center of the back from the top of his legs to the bottom hem of the coat, a high collar that stood up to the middle of his ears and was open in the front into a V just below his collar bone revealing a mesh-armor undershirt, silver buckles ran down the front from just below the collar to his waist, and silver trim accentuated the coat as well as the Shihoin crest on the left side of his friend's chest, and seemed to be made of heavier than normal material, as if it was made from an armored mesh woven into the fabric used to make the coat, a pair of black loose fitting cargo pants, and black shinobi boots. Over this simple attire was a set of bracers that protected the backs of his forearms and were attached to matching knuckle plates that protected the backs of his hands via leather-backed blackened chain mail and were kept in place by leather loops that went from the underside of the knuckle plates and wrapped around the middle finger of each hand, and matching greaves protected his shins and tops of his feet. He then noticed his friend didn't have his zanpaktou slid through his obi as he usually did but attached to the back of the duster in easy reach of his left hand with the hilt at his left hip. Kakashi also noticed that Kenshin was wearing two sets of kunai bandoleers around his thighs that held the special flat-bladed throwing knives that he preferred over the standard diamond shaped ones that almost everyone else used, another pair of sheathes were sewn into the duster in place of the pockets that would normally be for someone to put their hands into at about hip level, a wakazashi short sword was sheathed on Kenshin's back as well with the hilt at his right shoulder in an easy to reach spot, his equipment pouches were attached to the back of Kenshin's belt, and the metal piece from his hitai-ate was attached to the left sleeve of his duster at about the mid-level of his upper arm. Kakashi also noticed that Kenshin had the Shihoin Clan crest emblazoned on the backs of the knuckle plates in brilliant silver relief. All-in-all Kenshin's appearance was that of someone who knew how to use every weapon he was carrying. He also knew that the wakazashi and kunai were all forged by the Shihoin Clan's master blacksmith and were made of a metal that absorbed and enhanced the reiatsu of those using the weapons, allowing them to be thrown and then techniques to be released from the blades of the weapons.

Kakashi's musings about how dangerous his friend was were cut off as Kenshin asked, "What are you staring at?"

Kakashi looked at his friend and shrugged, "Nothing, just admiring all of the fun toys you seem to be carrying. Can you even move wearing all of that?"

Both of them started laughing knowing the answer to the question was a resounding 'yes'.

After a little bit, Kenshin said, "We should get going. We don't want to be late."

Kakashi nodded and the two of them set off for the training grounds which lay at the outskirts of the village just inside of the walls and gate…

* * *

 **Kenshin**

A little while later, the two friends arrived at the designated training ground to find Rin waiting for them. Her outfit didn't change all that much from the day before, all she had done was add an equipment pouch to the back of her belt and a pair of kunai sheathes attached to her right thigh. As soon as Rin saw Kakashi, she smiled and waved as the two friends were walking up, "Good morning, Kakashi-kun. How are you this morning?"

Kakashi shrugged, "Uh…Fine, I guess. Hope we get started soon."

Kenshin rolled his eyes at his friend's lack of understanding and said, "How are you this morning Rin?"

Rin smiled, "I'm excited and a little hungry."

Kenshin nodded his agreement and asked, "Where's Obito? I figured that someone with as much energy as he seems to have would have been here at least an hour ago."

Rin gave him a sheepish look, "Actually, Obito is usually late for one reason or another, usually having to do with how kind-hearted he is."

Kenshin nodded and sat down on the grass. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, filling his lungs from the bottom to the top as he had been taught to do. Kenshin held the breath for the span of a few heartbeats, feeling all of the muscles in his body loosen, feeling the grass beneath him, the wind on his face, the smell of the still dew-damp grass and the trees around them, and hearing the sounds of the world around him, and then he let the breath out slowly in a long exhale. He then took another deep breath, held it, and let it out the same way, his mind drifting further inward. By the time that Kenshin exhaled after taking his third deep breath, he was completely centered, his senses heightened to an extraordinary degree and his mind focused on his spiritual plain where the spirit of his zanpaktou resided.

When Kenshin opened his eyes, he once again found himself standing on the precipice of a mountain that climbed past the clouds and was surrounded by other such peaks, all of them scorched bare by fire to the point where they were ash-gray stone, the swirling winds tugging at his clothing. He couldn't see the dragon but he could hear the sound of its wings cutting through the air with a howling sound that seemed to cause the very air to vibrate from the force of the dragon's passing, every down-stroke of the wings sending shockwaves reverberating through the air. Kenshin's eyes roved the clouds below him, searching for any sign of the dragon. Suddenly he heard the same question in his mind that he had heard every time he had come here since awakening his zanpaktou almost a year ago and always in the same deep, raspy alto, _**do you have the courage to take the leap? Could you throw everything away for victory?**_

Kenshin spoke to the wind, "Why do you ask me that?"

The voice laughed a deep, grating alto laugh that seemed to vibrate the very marrow in Kenshin's bones, _**I wonder if you even have the courage to claim your birthright. You do not understand such a simple question as 'are you willing to risk your life?' I should have chosen better.**_

Kenshin closed his eyes and said, "Nothing risked, nothing gained, huh? You ask me to risk it all, to put everything I hold dear on a leap of faith," then the voice's words hit him and he smiled, "I see. If I cannot master my fear here, how can I fight to protect what I hold dear? You ask me to risk everything, to trust in you, my zanpaktou completely. For if I do not, how can we fight together as one? Well, I guess it's time to trust you. Courage is not the absence of fear but the mastery of it."

With that, Kenshin stepped back a few paces and sprinted forward, leaping off of the precipice without further hesitation…

* * *

 **Kakashi**

Kakashi had been watching his friend carefully ever since Kenshin had decided to meditate while they waited for Obito and Minato-sensei to show up. Suddenly he felt the change in his friend's reiatsu and reacted just as fast, moving between Rin and Kenshin, pushing her away, "Look out!"

At the same moment Obito showed up, "Hey guys, sorry I'm la-"

All three of them were blown off their feet by the physical shockwave of white reiatsu that emanated from Kenshin. The air behind the shockwave was hot enough that it felt like it would scorch Kakashi's lungs and it smelled of ozone. When the wind subsided, Kakashi got up off of Rin and helped her up. Rin said, "Thank you Kakashi-kun. Wha-what was that?"

Kakashi was watching his friend as he said, "I'm not sure. We'll find out together though. I think he's coming out of his meditation."…

Kenshin opened his eyes and found the other three members of his team staring at him with uneasy looks on their faces while standing a good twenty yards from him. Kenshin stood slowly, not trusting his body after what he had just been through on his spiritual plain. He looked at Kakashi and cracked his usual half-smile, "Why the long face Kakashi?"

Kakashi responded deadpan, "Because you just shot a good sized shockwave of pure reiatsu out of your body and now look as if you just took a nap."

Kenshin looked shocked, "You mean I released a physical shockwave of reiatsu? I'm sorry guys; that wasn't supposed to happen. It must have been when the dragon caught me from falling to my death on the canyon floor."

Kakashi responded, "Dragon? You mean you've fully awakened your zanpaktou! That's great, Kenshin."

Kenshin smiled at his friend, "Yeah, it is. It means that I can proceed with my zanpaktou training."

Rin interjected, "Zanpaktou? Fully awakened? What is going on?"

Kenshin answered, "Rin, didn't you notice that when we were in the academy and you guys would go to do chakra training that me and a few others would disappear? Didn't you notice how all of us that disappeared for chakra training all wore the black shihakusho, or how we all carried swords, even though we were just kids?"

Rin looked thoughtful for a moment then said, "Yeah, I guess I kinda did notice that you were gone whenever we were doing chakra or ninjutsu training, but what does that mean?"

Another voice answered before Kenshin could, "The reason that Kenshin and the others at the academy that wore the same outfit as Kenshin weren't in the chakra and ninjutsu classes is that they were learning about reiatsu and kidoh, which are part of being a samurai, right Kenshin?"

All of them spun and faced their mentor, Minato-sensei. Kenshin answered, "Yes, Minato-sensei."

Minato looked all four of them over and said, "Alright, follow me and we will get started shortly."…

* * *

 **Minato**

Minato led his four rookies deep into the training grounds towards the same spot that he had been led to by his own sensei, Jiraiya-sensei, all those years ago when he was a genin himself. He led them through the forest that was part of the training grounds along a path that was intimately familiar to him, since he came here to train by himself or with Kushina, until he emerged from the forest at the edge of a large clearing that had a deep and fast flowing creek running across the clearing, a couple of hills that covered one area, and sitting in one area, four large wooden posts, three of them were old and weather-worn and the last one was new, having been added by him just this morning. He stopped in front of the posts and turned to face his rookies, genin shinobi and the lone enlisted samurai. Minato let the silence extend to the point of almost being uncomfortable, his left hand in his pocket gripping the three jingle bells that he had on strings so that he could tie them to one of his belt loops before he spoke, "The reason that I asked you to come here is so that I could assess your skills and decide if you were truly worthy of being part of the military might of this village. In order to accomplish this, I have arranged for a little test. It will be the four of you against me and your objective," he paused as he pulled the bells out of his pocket allowing them to dangle and jangle at the end of their strings, "is to capture one of these three bells that will be attached to my belt. You will notice that there is one too few bells for the four of you, which means that one of you will not get a bell and will go without lunch. There will be a time limit to this exercise. It will last until noon."

Minato paused as he let his words sink in, "Now I will warn you. If you do not come at me with the intent to kill, then you will not get a bell and will go hungry for the rest of the time that we will be training today."

He paused again as he pulled out and set up the clock that would go off when it reached noon with an alarm loud enough to be heard anywhere on the field. Minato spoke again, "Also, whoever fails to capture a bell will be tied to one of these four posts and watch the others eat their lunches."

Minato could see the fear and shock on Rin and Obito's faces while he saw determination on the faces of Kakashi and Kenshin. He spoke again, "Now we will be-"

He was cut off as Obito suddenly drew a kunai and started to charge at him. Minato never let Obito get away from his starting spot as he used his teleportation jutsu to disappear and reappear behind Obito, grab Obito's right wrist, pulled Obito's arm back, bent at the elbow to the point where Obito was about to stab himself in the back of the head with his own hand and kunai. He spoke, "Impatience is not the way of the shinobi. I had not said 'Go' yet."

Minato paused for a second before he said, "Ready… GO!"

As soon as he said 'go', Minato shoved Obito forward into Rin and back flipped to get some fighting room. He landed and suddenly caught motion in the corner of his eye, _what the heck?_

Minato spun towards the attacker and caught his elbow with his right hand. He found himself eye-to-eye with a pair of silver eyes that held black three point stars in each and a smile that was all too similar to his father's 'battle smile' as Minato called it, _Kenshin! How? Wait a second, Kenpachi-sama had told me about his son's speed! I hadn't believed it until now. I will have to take you seriously, Kenshin._

Minato had expected Kenshin to immediately disengage and was already planning a counter attack when Kenshin's hand shot out almost faster than Minato could react, causing him to lose his grip on Kenshin's elbow, to grab the back of his head and yank it forward, towards a rapidly approaching knee. He twisted out of the boy's grasped as he tried to aim a punch at Kenshin's midsection. Minato's fist hit one of Kenshin's greaves and Kenshin used the momentum to further his horizontal spin in midair and provide added power to an ax kick he landed on Minato's left shoulder and dropped him to one knee.

At that moment, Minato sensed someone else attacking from behind him. Without thinking, Minato reached out and grabbed the wrist of the outstretched hand and yanked, pulling Kakashi past him and throwing him into Kenshin, sending both of them sailing through the air before landing in a pile of limbs. Minato was surprised and a little shaken. Even though he had heard about Kenshin's speed and strength from Kenpachi-sama, he hadn't believed it until he experienced it just now. Also the fact that Kakashi had used Kenshin as a distraction to make a play for the bells was a surprise. _No, it wasn't Kakashi using Kenshin as a distraction. It was the two of them working together to try to create an opening and use it to strike. Amazing, those two work seamlessly together already._

His musings were broken as he heard Kenshin's voice, "Hakudoh No Yon: Byakurai (White Lightning)."

Minato's eyes went wide as he watched the bolt of lightning stretching from Kenshin's outstretched hand towards him. He focused on one of the special kunai that he had prestaged with the formula for his hiraishin jutsu on it and used the technique to get clear, disappearing from in front of the impending lightning bolt to behind a nearby tree within the time it took to blink, watching as the lightning bolt stretched across the clearing and put a fist-sized hole completely through a tree at the far end of the clearing from where Kenshin was standing. Minato thought to himself, _that was dangerous. Lucky that I had a few kunai prestaged with the formula or I would have been in real trouble. So, this is what a member of the head family of the Shihoin Clan is capable of? No, this is just scratching the surface, his skills are still undeveloped. He will truly become a strong samurai if he continues to develop this fast._

Minato watched as Kakashi and Kenshin were standing where he left them in the middle of the field. He was starting to formulate a plan in his head on how to avoid these two to engage the others when suddenly Kenshin disappeared from the field and just as suddenly Minato sensed Kenshin reappear directly in front of him with a barely audible whisper. Minato thought, _shit, how did he_ , as he ducked under the kick aimed at his head and teleported away to another one of his kunai in another part of the forest around the edge of the clearing as the tree he had been leaning against shattered. When he reappeared, Minato suddenly had the air blasted from his lungs in a loud _whoosh_ as he caught a kick from Kenshin in the stomach, the force of the impact sending him flying back into the clearing. Minato thought as he flipped backwards to regain control of his body and land so that he could slide to a stop halfway across the clearing from where he had started, _damn he's faster than me. That has to be the shunpo that Kenpachi-sama was talking about. Kenpachi and Retsu-sama had told me how fast Kenshin's flash step was, but I thought that I was faster._

As Minato's slid to a stop, he caught a flicker of movement out of the corner of his right eye. He spun and drew one of his kunai and held it up over his head just in time to intercept the rapidly descending sword. At that moment, Minato realized the trap that had been set as it was Kakashi's sword that he was catching. As the screech of steel-on-steel filled the clearing, Minato froze as a second blade came from behind him and rested against his throat and Kenshin's voice came from behind him, "Minato-sensei, we'll take a pair of those bells now."

Minato nodded and reached down with his free hand to undo two of the bells and let them fall. Minato watched as Kakashi reached down and caught the two bells, causing them to jingle as they landed in his hand. Once Kakashi had the bells secured in a pocket, he nodded at Kenshin and the two of them backed off of Minato. Minato turned and looked at the two of them as they stood there congratulating each other. He spoke, "The teamwork that the two of you showed was amazing. I have never seen two rookies show that kind of teamwork at such an early stage. How did you two do it?"

Kakashi cracked a wide smile under his mask, causing his eyes to crinkle, "Well, Kenshin and I have been training together since our first few days in the academy, so when you train with someone for that long, you develop teamwork."

Minato smiled back at the two of them, "It shows. Kenshin, you'll have to explain to me how you were faster than me."

Kenshin chuckled, embarrassed, and scratched the back of his head, "Well, Minato-sensei, your teleportation jutsu is faster than my shunpo but because of the Tengan, I can see what you are going to do as soon as you decide to do it. Though, my Tengan is still nothing compared to my father's. He can see every move that his opponent is going to make before the battle even begins."

Minato nodded, "I see. I do have to praise you though, Kenshin. Your shunpo is nearly silent. A little more practice and no one will be able to hear it. Now if you will excuse me, I have to go push the other two. Though, I do expect you two to help them, we need the entire team to have the same level of teamwork that you two have."

Both of them chorused, "Yes sir!"

With that, Minato used hiraishin to move back into the trees. He waited as Kakashi and Kenshin moved off in a direction to try to find their other teammates who had disappeared during their fight with him…

* * *

 **Rin**

Rin wasn't doing so well. After witnessing the initial exchange between Minato-sensei and Obito then Minato-sensei and Kakashi along with Kenshin, she was feeling very inadequate. There was no way she could ever hope to come anywhere close to their level. She had continued to feel sorry for herself when a heavy hand fell onto her left shoulder. She was about to scream when an iron-strong grip clamped over her mouth, keeping her from screaming. At the same moment, a voice whispered in her ear, "Quiet Rin. It's me, Kenshin. I'm here to help you get the third bell. I'm going to let go now, okay?"

After she nodded, Kenshin let go of her and moved next to her. Rin's eyes focused on him and she was shocked with what she saw. His eyes carried a calculating intelligence that was sharpened to a razor's edge, hooded behind his unruly bangs. He was completely still next to her, his eyes the only things moving besides the slight rise and fall of his chest as he knelt beside her. She could feel the reiatsu radiating from him, causing the air around the two of them to become heavy with electric energy.

Rin asked, "So what is the plan, Kenshin?"

Kenshin looked at her and she froze as a lump of ice slid down her spine. His eyes were no longer the midnight blue that they had been before the mission started but molten silver with a black three point star in the center of each and held an unsettling glimmer in them, as if he was enjoying this. She thought, _this must be the Tengan I've heard about_. _It's almost as if he can see through me._

She watched as Kenshin thought about it, "First is to catch back up to Kakashi and Obito. Then we will go from there. Ready?"

Rin nodded and then looked at the guard of Kenshin's zanpaktou and froze, "Kenshin, what happened to your sword?"

Kenshin stopped as well, "What do you mean?"

Rin said, "Well, it looks different than it did before. The guard looks different, I don't remember it having those designs on it and I don't remember the sword having that extra piece of cloth coming off the pommel."

Kenshin chuckled, "That is the nature of zanpaktou. When a samurai first awakens the spirit of the zanpaktou, he receives a plain, unblemished and unadorned sword that is seemingly made from nothing at the moment of awakening, yet a craftsman would declare the sword to be the work of a master smith. Then when he or she fully awaken the spirit of the zanpaktou and accept the spirit for what they are, the sword takes on it unreleased state, in which it will have markings representing the name of the zanpaktou on the guard and other things may appear such as the tail coming off of the pommel of mine. Then when we learn the name of our zanpaktou and say it that is called 'shikai' or half-release, the sword will change radically in shape, appearance, and function. An example would be my mother's blade, Minazuki or 'Flesh Drops' Gorge'. When my mother releases the shikai state, her sword goes from being a normal looking nadochi-length sword to a two-handed falchion style sword that is two-toned with black on the back half and brilliant steel along the bottom half of the blade and cutting edge. Then as a samurai grows in strength and learns to bring the spirit of his zanpaktou to our plain of existence and masters the spirit, then he learns the full name of the zanpaktou and the sword takes on its true form. We call this 'bankai' or full-release. Again, using my mother's Minazuki as an example, when she releases bankai, the name of his blade remains Minazuki but means 'All Things End' and the sword changes into a guard-less great sword that has a light green hilt and a red blade save for the cutting edge that are as polished steel along with a light green hooded cloak that my mother gains in bankai state."

Rin said, "Oh. I didn't realize that that was what the marks or shape of samurai swords meant."

Kenshin nodded at her and said, "We'd best get moving. I think Kakashi has found Obito by now and is heading towards the rendezvous point we set."

Rin nodded and said, "Okay, let's go."

As they began moving through the forest towards the rendezvous, she couldn't help but look at the katana on Kenshin's back. If what he said was true, then it would mean that he only has to learn the name of his zanpaktou to reach the level where he would be considered an officer in the samurai ranks, which equated to a chuunin in the shinobi ranks. She thought as they moved through the forest, _I am so far behind Kenshin and Kakashi that I can never catch up. Why would they place someone as worthless as me on a team with a guy like Kenshin or Kakashi, let alone both of them?_

She saw Kenshin look back over his shoulder to make sure she was still with him. When he looked back forward he said something that surprised her, "You are not worthless Rin. You are a medical-nin of great skill from what I understand after asking around yesterday. Everyone I spoke to at the hospital praised the fact that you had learned the basics and even some of the advanced field medical techniques so quickly. They thought you had great promise but you lacked the confidence in yourself to really take flight. That was coming from some of the more senior jounin medical staff working at the hospital."

Rin was surprised when Kenshin said that, remembering only the jounin at the hospital telling her to work harder and to devote herself to her studies more.

Kenshin spoke again, as if reading her thoughts, "They push you because they see your talent and want you to realize it."

At one point, Kenshin held up a hand to stop her as he came to a stop on a wide tree branch that belonged to a large cypress tree that sat at the edge of one of the clearings on the training grounds. Rin moved up to join him on the same branch and looked at him then followed his eyes to where she could see a bell sitting on the ground under a branch of a similar tree to the one they were perched in across the clearing, the sunlight glinting off of its polished metal surface. Rin was about to go for it when Kenshin put out a hand to restrain her, "Don't. Look again, but this time notice how the ground near the bell has been disturbed recently and a well concealed rope leading from the dirt to the branch above the bell."

Rin looked again and this time she saw what he was talking about, "How did you see that?"

Kenshin looked at her, "I was looking for it. If something in our world seems too easy then it usually is."

Rin nodded, "So how do we get the bell without tripping the loop?"

Kenshin gestured with his chin, "This time it's easy. We let someone else trip it first. Then we move in before Sensei can pick it back up."

Rin looked on and watched with a sinking heart as Obito just walked out of the forest to their left with an easy confidence and made straight for the bell with no sense of caution whatsoever. She whispered, "Oh that beautiful idiot."

Kenshin nodded, "Kakashi's assessment of our Uchiha member may have been correct after all. Get ready to move. When he triggers the trap I am going to attack Minato-sensei as soon as he appears while you make for the bell. Only after you have the bell tucked away in a pocket do you try to cut our idiot down."

Rin nodded and prepared herself…

* * *

 **Minato**

Minato was feeling proud of his team for the most part, Kenshin and Kakashi were as advertised by both their teachers at the academy and Kenshin's parents; Rin had managed to stay hidden from him for the most part and had just recently moved from her previous hiding spot. The three of them were still rough around the edges but they were more than ready for real missions. In fact, Obito seemed the least prepared of all of them, and the most oblivious with the way he was just strolling up to the bell.

Minato watched and waited as Obito Uchiha just walked up to the bell and reached down for it. He watched as the instant before Obito picked the bell up his left ankle was caught in the loop that Minato had set and Obito was unceremoniously dragged skyward by one ankle, screaming obscenities the whole way.

Minato waited a second or two then moved out from his cover to pick up the bell, but he never made it as he sensed more than heard a certain someone appear behind him out of shunpo. He spun and blocked the knee that was coming at him with his own. Kenshin then lashed out with an elbow that Minato blocked with his hand and attacked with his own fist that was forced aside by Kenshin's arm. He then followed up with another knee shot that was aimed at Minato's stomach. The two of them continued to exchange blows and parries, each one of Kenshin's attacks forcing Minato away from the tree that the bell was under. Minato almost wondered what Kenshin was doing when Rin appeared out of the edge of the forest nearest the tree, grabbed the bell from the ground, and cut Obito down using a kunai. Obito yelped in pain as he landed in an unceremonious heap on the ground, sending up a small cloud of dirt.

Minato then held up his hand and said, "Enough!"

Everyone froze, including Kakashi, who was just emerging from the forest. When everyone had gathered in front of him, Minato looked over his team and said, "Well done to Rin, Kakashi, and Kenshin for getting the bells and for showing teamwork to help each other get the bells. Obito, you disregarded your teammates and ran at the first sign of trouble. The fact that you need to work on your skills is no reason to run from the fight. The whole point of this exercise was to see how each of you has come along with your skills during your time at the academy. Running away does not show me anything and showing back up to try to take advantage of a quote, unquote 'careless mistake' without even checking to see if it was a trap tells me that you are careless, so you will get to be the one tied to the post.

"However, I am proud of all of you. Obito, regardless of your flaws, you were the one who made the first move and tried to attack me before I said go. Kenshin, your abilities in taijutsu, kidoh, and strategy are on-par with or maybe even a little ahead of what I would expect from the eldest son of the main family of the Shihoin Clan. Kakashi, your taijutsu is excellent as well, your sword skills are still barely above a beginner, but with a little help from Kenshin, I am sure you could get better. And finally, Rin, your ability to stay hidden for most of the engagement is excellent however we will need to work on your taijutsu and combat ninjutsu. Overall, all of you did well enough to get me to say that you are ready to take on missions. Any questions?"

Kenshin raised his hand, his face a little pale, "Sensei, can we eat now?"

Minato laughed, "Sure, and Obito, we need to tie you up first."

* * *

 **A/N: Any questions that are posted will be answered in the near future as a separate chapter update.**


	3. The Heaven's Fang

**A/N: Here's the next chapter!**

 **1\. Speech/Thoughts Key:**

 _ **Well, well, well; look what the cat dragged in -**_ **Zanpaktou Spirit/Biiju/Summoned Creature Thoughts**

 **"And that will help us how exactly?"** \- **Zanpaktou Spirit/Biiju/Summoned Creature Speech**

"Badges, we don't need no stinking badges." - Human Speech

 _Please don't say whatever inane thought is running through that perverted mind of yours_ \- Human Thoughts

 **And let me check again... Nope, still don't own Bleach Naruto, Naruto Shippuuden, or Rurouni Kenshin, much to my chagrin**

 **Anyway... On with the story!**

* * *

 **The Heaven's Fang**

* * *

 **One Month Later**

 **Minato**

Since the bell challenge, Minato's team had completed two dozen missions of varying difficulty. As the team had completed each mission, Minato took the time to evaluate how each member of his team had performed in preparation for the meeting that was coming up in a week to decide who would participate in the Chuunin Exams in a few weeks. As he walked through the village just beginning to awaken with the sun just beginning to climb over the eastern mountains, Minato considered the tough decision before him, _Kenshin and Kakashi are of a level that I would enter the two of them for the chuunin exam coming up in a few months regardless of whether Kenshin had released his shikai or not. Obito and Rin are not ready for it._

He stopped for a moment and heaved a sigh, _Will they ever be ready?_

As Minato wandered through the village mulling over the decision before him, he was suddenly shaken out of his reflections as he found himself standing in front of the front gate to the Shihoin compound. He thought as the gates opened, _how did I end up here?_

A small, middle aged man appeared, "Ah, Minato-sama, to what do we owe the pleasure?"

Minato thought about it for a second before he said, "I would like to talk to Kenpachi- and Retsu-sama, if they are available."

The small man paused for a moment before he said, "They are awake and observing Kenshin-sama's zanpaktou training at the moment. If you would follow me, I will take you to them."

Minato nodded, "Thank you."…

* * *

 **Kenshin**

Kenshin stood across the barren landscape from a tall, lean man with pale blonde hair, sharp features, black eyes that could go from laughing one minute to 'I'm going to kill you' serious in a heartbeat, a five o'clock shadow that showed signs of gray, and lightly tanned skin. He was wearing a floppy-brimmed hat that hooded his eyes, a short forest green kimono gathered at the waist by a black obi, narrow-legged pants that matched the kimono in color, a pair of stilted clogs on his feet, and a white captain's haori over the top of his other clothes, as if it was an overcoat. The man's name was Kisuke Urahara and he was probably the best swordsman in the samurai ranks of Konoha and was one of a dozen captains in said ranks as well as being Kenshin's sensei in the ways of zanpaktou combat since childhood. The blade in his right hand featured a black-over-red angled hilt with a bronze pommel and red tassel hanging from it, a U-shaped bronze throat, and a standard length sword blade that was straight and squared at what passed for the tip and was black along the back half of the blade and as polished steel along the half of the blade with the cutting edge. Its name was Benihime (Crimson Princess).

The landscape around them in the subterranean training grounds was barren and broken with rocky outcroppings all over the place jutting up at weird angles. The training grounds were situated under the entirety of the Shihoin compound and were where generations of the Shihoin Clan had trained to master their zanpaktou away from the prying eyes of other samurai clans. The outer shell of the training grounds was comprised of a material that absorbed reiatsu and chakra to keep it from affecting the outside world and also contained a multitude of seals and barriers designed to contain any energy that managed to overwhelm the material in the walls. The space was approximately thirty square miles, part of it extending under the mountains that formed the back wall of the Shihoin compound, giving members of the clan plenty of space to spread out and train without interfering with each other, and was artificially lighted to simulate daytime with the walls and ceiling appearing as the sky…

* * *

 **Kisuke**

The two of them stood perfectly still, each looking for an opening in the other's stance. Urahara looked across the intervening space at his student, Kenshin Shihoin. The boy was a marvel, already faster than his mother and as strong as his father, but the most impressive thing was the way that he had trained himself to be almost silent when moving with shunpo and could use lightning element hakudoh of the highest levels without an incantation, a feat only higher level samurai such as himself could perform on a regular basis for their individual elements. The boy was currently wearing only the sleeveless black armor-woven shirt, black pants and boots that he normally wore under his duster and armor, though Kisuke had to admit, the boy did look intimidating in that outfit.

Urahara gave his student a smile, "So, for the sake of expediency, let's begin where we left off with the second lesson: Releasing your zanpaktou. There is only one real way to do this: Pushing you into a corner and continuing to push until you either break or release," he paused for a moment, his smile disappearing as he continued in a quiet voice, "So, let's begin."…

* * *

 **Kenpachi**

Kenpachi watched as Kisuke used shunpo to disappear and reappear behind Kenshin, bringing Benihime down in an overhead stroke meant to cut Kenshin open from shoulder to abdomen, but Kenshin became almost a blur as he spun and raised his sword to stop Urahara's Benihime. Kenpachi watched as Benihime connected with Kenshin's sword, paused for the briefest of moments, and then slid right through the blade as if it was a hot knife through butter with the sound of metal screeching against metal. He watched his son's eyes go wide as half of the blade of his sword fell away to land on the ground. Kenpachi smiled to himself, "Now, my boy, what will you do?"

A voice next to him said, "He will do what he has always done, reassess and figure out the best way to combat the enemy with the new information presented."

Kenpachi turned to see Minato sitting down next to him on his left, "Minato, how are you?"

Minato replied after bowing to Retsu and returning Soi Fon's bow and greeting, a smile on his face, "Well, thank you Kenpachi-sama. How is your son doing?"

Kenpachi smiled as he turned back to the two combatants, "Just realizing that he is seriously overpowered if he does not release his zanpaktou."

Minato asked, "Something's bothered me about that ever since I first met your son. Is it difficult to release your zanpaktou? Is that why I see so many of the samurai in the village with no markings on their zanpaktou?"

Kenpachi nodded as the two men watched Kenshin and Kisuke as they fought, "It is. Even just fully awakening the zanpaktou can prove difficult for some. The difficulty is usually based upon several factors: the spirit of the zanpaktou, the samurai himself, and the strength of the bond between samurai and zanpaktou. It is difficult to determine how long these things will take. For some, like Retsu and Soi Fon, they released within hours of fully awakening the spirits of their zanpaktou, it comes easy and quick, while with others like myself it takes a long time. We just have to wait and see."

Kenpachi watched as Minato nodded and both men turned their attention back to the fight going on…

* * *

 **Kenshin**

Kenshin knew he was screwed; there was no other way to put it. The moment he moved to block Urahara-sensei's sword because he had sensed Urahara-sensei move behind him rather than seeing his intentions with Tengan, he knew it. Then he watched his sensei's sword slide through his with little to no effort and the blade fell away. Kenshin used flash step to get some separation from Urahara-sensei, but as soon as he came out of shunpo a steel-like hand clamped onto the back of his collar and Kenshin suddenly had stars explode in his vision and the air blasted from his lungs as he was slammed into the ground hard enough for the ground to crater underneath him.

Kenshin froze as Urahara's sword stopped inches from his face, ice running down his spine. He looked from his sensei's sword to Urahara's eyes, which had filled with the crimson light of his reiatsu. Urahara gave him a smile that caused an icy hand clutch at Kenshin's heart, "Do you feel it, Kenshin? Do you feel what is happening here?"

Kenshin raised his right hand and pointed at Urahara's face with two fingers, "Yes I do, but that does not mean I will yield easily. Hakudoh No Yon: Byakurai!"

As he finished naming the spell, a bolt of lightning shot from his fingertips followed by a peal of thunder, causing Urahara to use flash step to avoid taking the bolt straight to his face. As soon as Urahara-sensei had used flash step, Kenshin used the opportunity to roll backwards to come to his feet and assume his fighting stance with his zanpaktou in a reverse grip in his left hand and the blade laid along his forearm protecting his body.

He didn't have a moment of reprieve as Urahara was upon him as soon as Kenshin had taken his stance. This time as his sword intercepted Urahara's, Kenshin watched as what remained of his sword's blade was cut away and the tsuba fell to the ground. Kenshin stepped back and back flipped to avoid being cut by Benihime as Urahara-sensei attacked again. As Kenshin landed only to have to evade another sweeping attack by Urahara-sensei he thought, _is this it? Is this as far as I go?_

As Kenshin continued to evade only to be thrown around as Urahara-sensei kept up a relentless assault against him, his thoughts turned inward, _why can't I do more? What is wrong with me?_

A voice in his head asked, _**what are you afraid of?**_

Suddenly Kenshin found himself standing on the same precipice as he had before except this time a massive storm was pouring rain down on top of him and he could see lightning in the distance at random intervals and hear the thunder that followed. There was the sound of massive wings behind him, nearly blasting him off of the precipice with the force of their down strokes and the ground under his feet shuddered as a massive body settled onto the ground. Kenshin turned around and found himself face to face with the spirit of his zanpaktou.

The dragon was massive in size with a large, wolf-like head that had razor-sharp teeth, the smallest being as long as Kenshin's arm from shoulder to fist and the largest being as tall and as thick around as Kenshin's father, large horns where the ears would stand up on a wolf's head and were angled back at roughly the same angle as if a wolf had laid its ears back, large eyes that were as big around as a large barrel and held not the normal black on silver Tengan, but her eyes were completely black with a silver six point star in the center, Ryuugami Tengan (God Dragon's Heavenly Sight), a short neck thick with heavy muscle that led into a broad-chested, long, and decidedly feminine body that was thick with heavy, rippling muscle, a long, thick, whip-like tail, and massive bat-like wings that had to be close to three hundred feet from wingtip to wingtip and were tattered along the trailing edges. The whole dragon was covered in leathery skin the color of the night sky on the blackest of nights and its feet were bird-like in shape with eagle's talons as long as otachi swords attached to legs that were as thick as the trunks of century-old trees. The entire dragon was devoid of any spikes with the exception of the horns on its head and a spike on each of its elbows and ankles.

Kenshin took a step back as the dragon locked eyes with him and he could almost feel the weight of the all of the millennia of the earth in the dragon's stare. He was startled again as the dragon changed shape into that of a woman his mother's height with an alluring hour-glass frame, pale skin that seemed to glow with an inner light, sharp yet graceful features that showed no signs of aging and could be considered by many to beautiful under shoulder blade-length black hair that looked to be soft as silk, but the eyes were the same. The woman standing before Kenshin was dressed in a pure white version of the classic Edo era armor with a white chest plate, white metal pauldrons in the shapes of large rectangles that stood above her shoulders to protect her shoulders, white bracers and greaves that matched the black ones that Kenshin wore daily seemed to be protecting her forearms/hands and shins. Under the armor, the woman wore the traditional black over white shihakusho of the samurai save for the fact that the obi that was tied around her waist was black vice white and white boots encased her feet. The woman locked eyes with Kenshin and asked, not in the same deep, rumbling thunder of an alto that he heard whenever he had spoken to his zanpaktou before, but in a clear and beautiful alto, **"Why haven't you called my name?"**

Kenshin responded, "Because I don't know it."

 **"Why don't you know it? I have been screaming it at you since you fully awakened me a month ago! Why have you not listened?"**

Kenshin had no answer. He looked down and thought for a moment, "Maybe because I thought that I could get stronger on my own."

He heard her move close to him and felt a gentle hand cup his chin to lift his head until he was looking her in the eyes as she spoke again, disappointment coloring her voice, **"In other words, you ignored the lesson that I taught you when you fully awakened me: that we are one. You hear what I say but you do not listen. You cannot succeed without me and I cannot fight to protect those precious to you without you. Look around you, what do you see?"**

Kenshin looked, "The same high mountains as before except that this time this storm seems to cover everything."

The spirit of his zanpaktou spoke again, **"This storm is because of the fear and doubt clouding your heart and soul. That is also the reason that you cannot hear my name."** …

* * *

 **Kisuke**

Urahara had stopped when Kenshin had. Kisuke was watching his student very closely as he prepared to fight his student again. He had noticed the sudden change in Kenshin's reiatsu, where it had been wildly fluctuating up and down earlier, now it was calm and steadily rising. Urahara thought, _maybe he's finally listening…_

* * *

 **Kenshin**

Kenshin closed his eyes on his spiritual plane, took a deep breath and let it out, releasing all of the doubt he felt about his abilities go. The rain seemed to lessen and the lightning and thunder had stopped as he did so. He opened his eyes again and looked at the spirit of his zanpaktou, "Sorry about earlier, I am listening now."

The ageless woman across from him gave him a smile that was both gentle and demanding at the same time, **"Good. Now turn and face your enemy."**

He felt his body turn to face Urahara-sensei in the real world.

The ageless woman spoke again, **"Now master your fear."**

Kenshin studied all of the reasons he was afraid of Urahara-sensei and as he did the rain stopped completely, _he is stronger than me, only because he is older and has experience that you do not. He is faster than me; speed will come as we grow stronger and age. He is a captain, you will get there. Now focus…_

* * *

 **Kisuke**

Urahara watched as Kenshin turned to face him, his eyes still closed, his muscles loose, and Urahara could sense the boy's reiatsu rising inside of him, causing the air around the boy to become heavy with reiatsu. Kisuke smiled, _that's it Kenshin…_

* * *

 **Kenshin**

The ageless woman spoke again, **"When you evade, none will harm you."** …

* * *

 **Kisuke**

Urahara watched as the piece of cloth hanging off of the end of the pommel was ripped off due to the force of Kenshin's rapidly increasing reiatsu, the heavy air around beginning to crackle and spark with built up energy as the ground began to quake beneath their feet…

* * *

 **Kenshin**

The ageless woman spoke to Kenshin again, **"When you attack, no foe shall stand before you."** …

* * *

 **Kisuke**

Urahara took a step back as the pressure being exerted on the air by Kenshin's reiatsu increased again as Kenshin stepped into a long and low stance with the hilt of his sword held in his left hand at his right hip away from Urahara, a classic battojutsu (quick draw stance)…

* * *

 **Minato**

Minato asked Kenpachi in a loud voice to be heard over the rumble of the ground and the rapidly building rumbling of the air, "Is this normal?"

Minato saw Kenpachi shake his head and answer just as loudly in a voice as if he was enjoying the spectacle, "No, it's not. Usually there is one quick explosion of reiatsu when the release occurs, not this steady increase in pressure. Very few samurai have their reiatsu increase this much before they even release."…

* * *

 **Kenshin**

The ageless woman spoke to Kenshin again as the clouds overhead broke revealing a clear blue sky devoid of a single cloud, **"When you protect someone, no harm shall befall them."** …

* * *

 **Kisuke**

Urahara's eyes went wide as he saw a column of white reiatsu, explode from and surround Kenshin, causing the air around Kenshin to grow even heavier as it spun violently around him. Urahara thought to himself as he reached up and grabbed his hat to keep it from flying away in the gale-force winds coming from Kenshin, _Kenpachi wasn't kidding when he said that Kenshin was probably paired with one of the lords, but this feels different than when I was there for Kenpachi's release. This reiatsu feels heavier and there is far more of it_ …

* * *

 **Kenshin**

The ageless woman spoke to Kenshin again, this time with her hand resting on Kenshin's left shoulder as she stood behind Kenshin as a mother pushing her son forward, **"This is your oath as a Shihoin and as my samurai partner. Never forget it. Now shout my name to the heavens so that all will know us… My name is…"** …

* * *

 **Kenpachi**

Urahara, Retsu, Kenpachi, and Minato all heard Kenshin as he shouted the name of his zanpaktou while performing a quick draw motion, "TENSUGA!"

At the same moment that he shouted the name of his zanpaktou, a perfectly silent shockwave of the same white reiatsu exploded outward from Kenshin and blew Urahara off of his feet and sent him flying while causing the others to be forced from their sitting positions to lying flat on their backs. The air behind the shockwave was hot enough to almost scorch the observers' lungs and held a distinct ozone smell. After a few heartbeats, a deafening _KA-BOOM_ rang out, causing all of the observers' and the teacher's ears to ring. All of them stayed on the ground until the ringing had stopped and the world had stopped spinning around them before they decided to get up.

As Minato, Retsu, Soi Fon, and Kenpachi stood up from where they had been lying and Urahara was picking himself up from where he had landed, all of their eyes were focused on the figures that were at the epicenter of the shockwave. One was Kenshin, who was standing with a sword that was easily as tall as his shoulder resting on his left shoulder and was shaped like a zetsurin-style otachi, featured a matte black over polished steel blade, a non-traditional hilt that was nothing more than white bandages wrapped around the tang of the sword with a streamer coming off of it where the pommel would be. Kenshin's eyes were also closed. The other figure that came into focus as the dust settled was that of the largest dragon spirit that Kenpachi had ever seen. The dragon was made of reiatsu of the purest black and every detail of the dragon was carved with the same white light that was Kenshin's reiatsu. He couldn't believe it. Kenpachi's eyes took in every detail of the dragon again as he sent a thought inward to his own dragon, _Nozarashi, is that dragon who I think it is?_

Nozarashi answer echoed in Kenpachi's head, _ **yes, it is. Tensuga, the Heaven's Fang. She is the Empress of the Tenryuu and mother of the three Ryuugami of the Tenryuu: Ryujin Jakka, Old Spirit Young Flame, Zangetsu, Cutting Moon, and Kazeshine, Death Wind. Tensuga is the goddess of life, while her sons Ryuujin Jakka and Zangetsu are the gods of fire and the sun and the moon and darkness, respectively. Her daughter is Kazeshine, the goddess of death and the wind. We of the five Ryuudaimyo are lords of each element: earth, fire, lightning, water, and wind. We obey the wills of the Ryuugami who rule because she allows it**_ **.**

Kenpachi spoke, his voice full of anticipation as if what he was witnessing was getting him worked up for a sparring match, "It seems that I was wrong about Kenshin's zanpaktou."

Minato asked, "How so, Kenpachi-sama?"

Kenpachi spoke again, "He isn't partnered with one of the ryuudaimio but with the Empress of the Tenryuu herself, the Heaven's Fang."

Minato asked, "So what does that mean for Kenshin?"

Soi Fon answered before Kenpachi could, her voice full of awe, "It means that Kenshin-sama's strength will grow far more rapidly than Retsu-sama's did at his age. Other than that, I can't tell you."

Their attention was grabbed again by movement at the epicenter of the shockwave. Kenshin brought the sword down off of his shoulder and held it to one side in his null stance with his feet shoulder-width apart and sword held to his left side, his eyes still closed…

Urahara stepped into his combat stance again and said, "Now that you have released your shikai, shall we continue?"

He watched as Kenshin cracked a small, predatory half smile with his eyes still closed, "What do you say, Tensuga? Shall we?"

Urahara's eyes went wide as he and the others watched the massive dragon bent its head down and touched its nose to the blade of Kenshin's zanpaktou. As soon as the dragon touched its nose to the sword, it seemed to be sucked into the sword. The instant that the dragon had disappeared into the sword, Kenshin was surrounded by the same white light that was his reiatsu, and at the same instant the air around Kenshin began to vibrate violently again and the ground shook as if an earthquake had hit. The feel of his reiatsu was different as well; it almost felt like it was a blade that was well on its way to being sharp enough to cut through Kisuke. Urahara smiled to himself, "I see. I guess that I will have to step it up a notch."

As he said that, Urahara started to radiate his own reiatsu, a crimson light that surrounded him and caused the air to vibrate and the ground to shake even more violently…

From their vantage point, Minato looked on with amazement as the air became heavy with the reiatsu being radiated by the two sparring before him and the others, "I've never seen someone Kenshin's age radiate this much energy."

Kenpachi chuckled, "You've never seen a samurai's first release before have you?"

Minato shook his head, "No, why?"

Retsu answered, her voice still sounded sweet but held the same predatory anticipation as her husband's, "Because when a samurai releases his zanpaktou for the first time, there is an excess amount of reiatsu generated by the effort it takes to make that connection with the spirit of their zanpaktou. We call it a 'release spike' and it can usually be two to three times the samurai's normally released level, whether it is in the shikai or bankai state. Kenshin's current reiatsu level is about five times what it will be the next time he tries to release his shikai."

Minato said as he looked back at Kenshin, "You mean Kenshin won't be at this level next time?"

Kenpachi nodded, "Exactly. However, that is what normally happens. With Kenshin being partnered with the Empress of the Tenryuu, we can't predict how large or small the spike is. It could very well be that this is his normal level, or it could be that his reiatsu level will drop significantly the next time he releases."

Then Kenpachi's smile widened as he realized something, "Wait, Retsu, did Kenshin have to say an incantation to release Tensuga?"

He watched as his wife bit her lower lip contemplatively, "No, he didn't."

Kenpachi closed his eyes, "I see. That means that his reiatsu spike is more than likely significantly smaller than normal."

Minato asked, "Why would it mean that?"

Retsu answered, realizing what Kenpachi was thinking, "It means that Kenshin's zanpaktou is like Nozarashi (Weather-Beaten One) in that it is what we call a 'permanently released shikai', which are incredibly rare."

Minato inquired, still not grasping the significance, "Why are samurai with permanently released shikai rare?"

Kenpachi sighed and answered, "The reason we are incredibly rare goes back to the basics of reiatsu levels. Imagine that reiatsu flows like water from a faucet and the faucet is how a samurai would control how much reiatsu to use."

Minato nodded, "That's similar to how we use chakra."

Kenpachi nodded, "Indeed it is. Now if you opened the valve and were surprised how much water came out, you would shut the valve to lower the amount of water you were getting out of the faucet. This is why most samurai's first release has such a large spike associated with it, because most samurai are surprised by the level of reiatsu that they exude when they release their zanpaktou for the first time and after that unconsciously place limits on themselves to prevent letting their reiatsu getting away from them and these limits are only overcome through training and communing with the spirit of his zanpaktou."

Minato responded, "Really, then what about you and Kenshin?"

Kenpachi smiled at his friend, "In our case, the valve was opened all the way and can't be shut off."

Minato eyes went wide and then he turned his attention back to where Kenshin was standing, "So does that mean he will run out of reiatsu soon?"

Kenpachi shook his head, "No, just the opposite, it means that those few samurai who have permanently released shikai have too much reiatsu to contain. In the case of most of them this fact means that they burn out quick and suffer all kinds of health issues that usually cause them to die very young. In Kenshin's case and mine, we had training from Kisuke and my old man and trained ourselves extensively to control the amount of reiatsu we exude so that he can achieve his dream and I could achieve mine. In time, he will be one of the strongest, if not the strongest samurai in the village, eclipsing even me and Retsu."

Retsu spoke before Minato could say something more, "Something's happening."…

* * *

 **Kisuke**

Urahara was about to make a move when Kenshin's eyes suddenly opened, the light of his reiatsu filling them and causing them to glow brilliantly as he said, "Sorry Urahara-sensei."

Urahara asked, "Why are you sorry, Kenshin?"

Kenshin raised Tensuga above his head and gripped the hilt with both hands before he said, "Because I can't control it yet. I hope you can dodge it."

Urahara's eyes went wide as he watched as Kenshin's reiatsu concentrated along the polished steel cutting edge, making it glow with the white light of Kenshin's reiatsu. He sensed the amount of power that was concentrated along that blade and thought, _crap!_

Urahara cried as he brought his sword up in front of him, "Chikasumi no Tate (Blood Mist Shield), Benihime!"

The shield formed an instant before Kenshin brought Tensuga down in an overhead slash, releasing a huge blast of condensed reiatsu that went right past Urahara's right shoulder with a sound that was akin to a dragon's roar…

* * *

 **Minato**

Minato, Retsu, Soi Fon, and Kenpachi watched as Kenshin raised his sword above his head, his reiatsu condensing along the blade, causing it to shine like a beacon, and bringing the sword down, releasing an arc of condensed reiatsu that went right past Urahara with a sound that was very familiar to Kenpachi and Retsu, and gouged a deep crevice in the ground for nearly the entire length of the training room from where Kenshin was standing to the far wall.

Minato whispered his eyes wide, "Such raw power."

Kenpachi chuckled gleefully as if he was getting ready for a fight, "Yes. That is only a taste of what he will be able to do once he is properly trained by Tensuga."


	4. The Shark Empress

**A/N: Another Chapter Up!**

 **1\. A note on Tier's name:**

 **Her name is actually spoken as "Tia Halibel", so that is why you see her name written a couple of different ways.**

 **2\. Speech/Thoughts Key:**

 **"So, wait...we're not going to kill him...Well that's no fun."** \- **Zanpaktou Spirit/Biiju/Summoned Creature Speech**

 _ **Oh yes, let's just antagonize two jinchuuriki. That is just a fantastic idea. -**_ **Zanpaktou Spirit/Biiju/Summoned Creature Thoughts**

"Wait, why are you putting an explosive tag on him? We're supposed to be protecting him!" - Human Speech

 _Oh jeez, here we go again... Another fangirl_ \- Human Thoughts

 **Still am not lucky enough to own Bleach, Naruto, Naruto Shippuuden, or Rurouni Kenshin**

* * *

 **The Shark Empress**

* * *

 **Tier**

After their first month of being a team, Retsu-sensei had told Tier, Isane, and Shizune to meet her outside of the Shihoin Clan compound at sunrise so that she could evaluate their current abilities and then decide on a course of action for furthering their training as both individuals and teammates. Which led to Tier's current situation of standing at the gates of the Shihoin compound as the sun slowly started to color the sky shades of purple and gold as she waited for the rest of her team to arrive. As she stood there tracing the contours of the engraved emblems and images on the gates, she couldn't help the little thrill of excitement that ran through her at the thought that was running through her head at the moment, _maybe I'll get to see Kenshin while we are training with Retsu-sensei._

Her musings about a certain black-haired young man were broken off as she heard the approach of one of her teammates. Tier studied Isane Kotetsu as the girl approached. She stood a few inches taller than Tier with a long and athletic figure that was beginning to fill out in a womanly manner, shock gray hair that was cut short save for a long braid that hung from her left temple to just past her shoulder, a beautiful round face that always wore an anxious look in her black eyes, a tall nose, and full lips. Tier saw that she was wearing the traditional samurai shihakusho with her zanpaktou, Itegumo (Frozen Snow), slid through her obi at her left hip in its sealed form. The zanpaktou had a light gray hilt with a bronze tsuba in the form of an eight sided snow flake. Tier was proud of the fact that her friend had been the first of the two of them to release her zanpaktou, giving the taller girl an amazing boost in confidence in herself. She watched as Isane looked at her and chuckled, speaking in a quiet alto, "It figures you would be the first one here, Tier. I know how big of a crush you had on our sensei's son while we were at the academy."…

* * *

 **Isane**

Isane had rounded the corner of the wall that bordered the Shihoin Clan compound to find her best friend standing there waiting for the rest of their team to arrive. Isane chuckled as she looked at her best friend and the first person to know, besides herself, that Isane did not like boys. The two of them had been close since even before the academy as her father served as Tier's father's fukutaichou (lieutenant) for years and once the two of them had entered the academy, their friendship had developed into a sisterly affection that was unshakable in its strength. Isane took a moment to study her friend/sister. Tier stood a few inches shorter than her with a head of unruly short blonde hair save for three braids that she always wore in it; one on either side of her face and one in the center at the back of her head, thin matching eyebrows and lashes over a pair of brilliant aqua colored eyes that held the spark of a cunning intelligence, a stunningly beautiful heart-shaped face with a small nose, high cheekbones, and full lips, not to mention an already alluring hour-glass figure that already rivaled another girl in their class, Rangiku Matsumoto, who already had the bust and curves of a woman almost twice her age, and only promised to grow more so as the friends grew older, and all of this encompassed in flawless skin that was the shade of rich caramel, making Tier's beauty highly exotic in the much paler Konoha populous. Physically, Tier was the strongest girl in their graduating class and it showed in the steel-corded muscles that Isane had observed moving under the girl's skin with even the smallest movement from Tier, marking the biggest difference between Tier and the strawberry-blonde Rangiku, who besides her already womanly curves was all soft with very little physical strength. Isane saw that Tier was wearing her normal form-fitting white half jacket with a high collar that covered Tier from just below her eyes to even with the bottom of her rib cage with loose-fitting sleeves and black trim that edged the top and bottom of the jacket as well as along the zipper track over a form-fitting mesh armor shirt that was typical of many samurai and shinobi in the village, white hakama pants that hung low on her hips and were held up by a black version of the typical samurai obi, black fingerless gloves that had metal knuckle plates attached to the back of them, black versions of the typical samurai socks covered her feet along with the typical sandals worn by most samurai in the village. The actual metal hitai-ate was attached to her left sleeve in the middle of her upper arm, just like a certain male samurai from their class. Tier's zanpaktou, with its aqua-over-white hilt and hexagonal tsuba was slid through the back of her obi with the hilt within easy reach of her right hand. Isane remembered that Tier had fully awakened her zanpaktou only a week ago and was struggling to release her shikai, which was part of the reason that their team was meeting here for training with their sensei.

Isane chuckled at her friend, "It figures you would be the first one here, Tia. I know how big of a crush you had on our sensei's son while we were at the academy."

Tier's reaction to her teasing was immediate and very satisfying as she struggled to hold back a blush and stammered in her sweet tenor, "I did-…what I mean is…," she watched as Tier paused for a moment before continuing, "I didn't have a crush on him. I admired the way he stood up for those in our class who couldn't protect themselves and how he tried to help everyone in our class."

Isane smiled at her friend's feeble attempts to defend her infatuation with the heir of the Shihoin Clan, "Just admit it, Tia, you like him."

She watched as Tier gave her the girl's best death glare, "No, I don't."

Just then another female voice broke in, "You don't what?"

Both Isane and Tier turned to look at the newly arrived Shizune Senju. Isane watched as Shizune joined them. She was beautiful with her father's white hair cut just above her shoulders, her mother's honey brown eyes set into a gorgeous round face, and a lithe frame that moved with all the grace of a dancer, and promised to develop much along the lines of her mother's. She was wearing her normal blue long sleeve shirt, black loose-fitting pants with a kunai holster strapped to her right thigh, and blue shinobi boots. She wore her headband with the Konoha emblem emblazoned on it tied around her right bicep.

Isane smiled at Shizune, "We are trying to get Tia to admit that she likes Kenshin."

She watched as Shizune chuckled and shot a look over to Tier, "You know Tier, it is incredibly hard to believe you when you say that you don't like him because of the fact that your face is actually turning red."

Any response from Tier was cut off as the gates to the Shihoin compound opened and a small elderly man stepped out and looked at the three of them, "The three of you must be Retsu-sama's team. Please follow me and I will take you to her."

Isane and Shizune looked to Tier, the unspoken and agreed upon leader of the team when their sensei wasn't around. Tier didn't hesitate to follow the elderly man and the other two fell in behind her, all three entering the compound…

* * *

 **Tier**

Tier's emotions were in turmoil as she led the other two into the compound. On the one hand, she was excited about training with her team's sensei inside the Shihoin compound because it would allow her the possibility to see how much Kenshin had changed over the month since their graduation, but on the other, she was afraid that he wouldn't like her because of her inability to commune with her zanpaktou and release.

As they walked, she noticed that the compound was in essence a smaller village within the confines of Konoha itself, complete with little shops that were selling a wide variety of wares and restaurants that were cooking some amazing smelling food, a few parks for meditation and relaxation, and even a few children running around enjoying the quiet Saturday morning. As the team was led through the streets of the clan's compound, Tier couldn't help but marvel at how peaceful it was. She had figured that the clan compound would reflect the clan's bloodthirsty reputation, that there would be fights and brawls in the streets, but the reality was completely the opposite. She almost felt herself relaxing as they approached the main house nestled in the center of the miniature village. The other thing that Tier noticed was that everywhere in the village were images and statues of a wide variety of dragons. She guessed that all of the dragons were various members of the Tenryuu.

The main house matched the rest of the structures in the clan's compound in that it was keeping the traditional architecture of a tiled roof, plaster over wooden outer walls, a covered porch that was directly in front of the bamboo and rice paper sliding doors, above which the clan's stylized dragon emblem was carved in relief. The three girls paused as the elderly man leading them did not hesitate to step up onto the porch and towards the front door. When he realized that the three girls weren't following him, he turned and looked at them with a patient look on his face, "Ladies, Retsu-sama asked me to lead the three of you to where you would be training with her and it is this way, so please follow me."

Tier spoke up, "Sir, please forgive our trepidation at being led to a house, but we were expecting a practice field like what we would normally train at."

Tier didn't have to look to know that both Isane and Shizune were nodding their agreement.

Their guide frowned at them and said, "I am leading you to one of the several training grounds that our clan members use to train away from the prying eyes of the rest of the village. After all, how many times have any of you seen Retsu-sama do any kind of training at one of the public training fields?"

Tier was about to answer that they normally trained with Retsu-sensei at one of the public training fields but as she thought about it she realized that they had never seen Retsu-sensei perform any practice with her own zanpaktou when she was training the three of them. Since the question was answered by her own thoughts, Tier moved to follow their guide into the house, knowing that the other two would follow her immediately. Soon enough, the three girls found themselves standing in the main audience room, staring wide-eyed as their guide moved one of the bamboo floor panels aside to reveal a trap door that appeared to be shut and locked with a heavy-duty ring type handle and some heavily-reinforced hinges. Their guide told them to stand back as he reached for the ring shaped handle and turned it. Tier and the others gasped as they were forced to their knees as the trapdoor flew open violently, unable to contain the reiatsu that was radiating from within the training room as soon as the hatch had been unlocked. The feeling of the reiatsu made Tier's blood run cold. There were three distinct reiatsu signatures that she could sense, one of them was Kenshin, one was a reiatsu she was intimately familiar with, and the last one she didn't recognize at all, but could definitely sense the killer intent carried in the reiatsu. She thought, _what the hell is going on down there? It feels almost as if a war is being waged down there. Surely Retsu-sama isn't down there._

Her musings were cut off as the elderly man smiled at the three of them, "This is why we Shihoin prefer to train in areas such as the training room below. Now if you young ladies will go down the ladder, you will find Retsu-sama below."

Tier loosened her mental grip on her own reiatsu in an attempt to counter the overwhelming spiritual pressure enough for her to be able to move. She could sense Isane's reiatsu as well, meaning that the medic of their team had begun to do the same as far as releasing enough reiatsu to be able to move…

* * *

 **Retsu**

Retsu Shihoin smiled inwardly as she watched her son take on and keep pace with both her husband and his teacher in what had turned into a very invigorating sparring session. Over the last month, Kenshin had grown by leaps and bounds, his confidence seeming to increase with each sparring session with either his father or teacher or even the spirit of his zanpaktou. Right now, Kenshin was actually pressing an advantage he had against Retsu's husband. He had managed to land a kick in his father's chest and was now trying to cut Kenpachi across the chest with a broad stroke that went from over his right shoulder across and out to his left. His father managed to use shunpo to avoid the blade of his son's zanpaktou and lunged forward to reengage his son with a savage grin on his face, their blades clashing with the sound of steel meeting steel. Suddenly she sensed the approach of her three students, the two samurai having to keep their reiatsu pretty high just to keep from being overwhelmed by the levels the three in front of her were fighting at. She turned to face the direction that she sensed the three girls approaching from and watched as they emerged from behind one of the rocky outcroppings that were scattered about the landscape, Tier in the lead, as always, followed by Isane, and lastly Shizune bringing up the rear, struggling to stay upright under the spiritual pressure being exerted around them. Retsu flared her own reiatsu to partially shield the girls from the battle being waged directly behind her. Finally, after a couple of minutes, all three of her students stood before her. She took a moment to erect a barrier to shield the girls from the reiatsu and then turned back to them and gave them her sweetest smile as she said, "Welcome to one of the Shihoin Clan's private training grounds. From now on, as long as I am your mentor, we will meet and train here, understood?"

She watched as all three girls nodded, though she could tell that they were still uncomfortable under the weight of the spiritual pressure being exerted by the three combatants behind her even behind the barrier she had erected and said, "Ken-kun and Kisuke-san are sparring against Kenshin at the moment if you girls would like to watch."…

* * *

 **Tier**

Tier turned her attention to the fight and felt her heart stop for a moment before beginning to hammer her rib cage in its efforts to betray her and burst from her chest. She was captivated as she watched Kenshin move with the ease and grace of a dancer yet with the power and speed of an expert swordsman. She found his style a mesmerizing combination of savage beauty, effortless grace, lightning-fast speed, and brutal efficiency as he, for lack of a better term, flowed like water between the two older combatants in an endless and seamless dance that appeared to be overwhelming his antagonists, every attack aimed at him was deflected and countered with very little waste in his movements, the whole time moving fast enough that she could only follow his movements by a flash of steel here, a grunt from one of his opponents there as a reward for a well-placed fist, knee, elbow, or foot, and all the while he radiated a reiatsu that seemed to set fire to her blood with a feeling she couldn't describe. There were scary moments for her too as she stood transfixed, like when she had to hold her breath as his father's sword passed within a paper's breadth of his chest on a powerful thrust that was avoided by Kenshin's well timed twist, or when Kenshin's sensei's sword got close enough to trim some of his untidy bangs from his head.

She heard Shizune gasp behind her, "Retsu-sensei, isn't that your son sparring with your husband and Urahara-taichou?"

Tier heard their sensei chuckle, "Yes it is, Shizune."

She heard Shizune speak with some trepidation in her voice, "He's fighting two Captain-level samurai."

Tier heard Retsu-sensei speak again, laughter coloring her voice, "Yes he is."

She heard Shizune ask with what sounded like fear in her voice, "Sensei, I don't mean to sound rude, but why is he winning?"

Tier spoke, her annoyance at the constant interruption to her studying Kenshin starting to color her voice, "Because they aren't going all out. Look closer Shizune, neither of the captains that Kenshin is fighting have released their bankai."

She watched as the three combatants separated, Kenshin to their left, the two captains opposite him. Tier watched as Kenpachi-taichou began to direct his reiatsu along the cutting edge of his zanpaktou, causing it to glow with a brilliant golden light. As she watched, Urahara-taichou also gathered his reiatsu along the cutting edge of his blade, his reiatsu a deep crimson in color vice gold. She watched as both captains raised their swords above their heads, their killer intent even making her sweat a little. She heard Urahara-taichou ask, "So, Shihoin-san, do you feel it, our resolve to defeat you?"

She watched as Kenshin chuckled while he shifted into a classic L-shaped stance with his zanpaktou held in both hands, the wakazashi he had been using now sheathed at his right hip, "I do hear it Urahara-sensei. Both of your blades scream yours' and my father's intent on cutting me down. Now, I ask you, do you hear my resolve?"

Suddenly the air became even more oppressive as Tier watched Kenshin become surrounded by a pure white light and his blade seemed to burn with white reiatsu flames. Even from this distance, she heard the growl like two stones grating against each other emanating from Kenshin's zanpaktou as he spoke in a low voice that seemed to ring out across the space between them, "My resolve says: When I evade, none will not touch me. When I protect someone, no harm will befall them. When I attack, none will stand before me."

She saw Urahara-taichou smile one of his small smiles as he said, "Guess there's nothing else for it then," he paused as he swung Benihime towards his student, "Nake, Benihime (Scream, Benihime)."

Tier watched as at the same time as Urahara's attack, Kenpachi-taichou brought his own sword down bellowing, "Kazesuga Tensho (Wind's Fang Heavenly Slash)!"

She watched in horror as the two massive waves of condensed reiatsu rumbled across the distance between the captains and where Kenshin was standing. Tier's hand unconsciously went to her zanpaktou's hilt as she gathered her strength to jump down there to protect Kenshin, as irrational as it was, after all she had just watched him hold his own against these two captains, but she wanted to protect him for some reason, until she felt an iron grip wrap around her wrist, breaking her focus and forcing her to glance at her sensei who was holding her wrist at the moment. She was about to protest when Retsu-sensei smiled at her and said, "Don't. Just watch and see what happens."

Tier looked back at where Kenshin was standing with his sword above his head in both hands as he watched the twin attacks approach him. She felt the cold hand of fear clutch at her heart as the waves of energy seemed to inch their way to where Kenshin was standing. Tier wanted to scream, to rail against Retsu-sensei for keeping her from protecting Kenshin until she barely heard Kenshin's whispered attack as he brought his sword down, "Tensho (Heavenly Slash)!"

She gasped as she watched a massive wave of white reiatsu leapt from his blade as he swung downwards with it. The three attacks met and unleashed a massive explosion that momentarily blinded everyone.

When the smoke cleared, Tier and her team, including Retsu-sensei, saw a massive X-shaped ravine carved into the landscape with Shihoin-taichou and Urahara-taichou standing on one side of the ravine and Kenshin on the other. The three stood still for a moment Urahara-taichou started clapping, exclaiming happily, "Well done, Shihoin-san. You have completed the third lesson: Learning to Release the Attack of Your Zanpaktou. Now, we'll call it a day here because I believe that Retsu-san has her team here to train as well."

Tier watched as Kenshin brought his otachi-like zanpaktou up over his shoulder and hold it against the bandoleer around his body until the streamer off of what would pass for a pommel lengthened to enshroud the whole blade and attach it to the red bandoleer that encircled Kenshin's body from left shoulder to right hip.

She watched as the three men made their way over to where she and the rest of her team were standing with Retsu-sensei. Tier took the opportunity to study Kenshin's attire. He was wearing a mesh armor shirt that was similar to the one she was wearing except for the red chain-like bandoleer wrapped around his upper body from left shoulder to right hip, a pair of black cargo pants, and black boots. She noticed how the sheathed wakazashi he had been using was attached to the right side of his belt. Tier was captivated by how he moved with a fighter's grace, perfectly balanced on the balls of his feet without a single wasted movement. She watched as the three men walked directly over to Retsu-sensei and the three of them and stopped, with Kenshin stopping directly in front of her.

Suddenly she was shaken from her revere as she realized that Kenshin was asking her a question, "…-re you, Halibel-san?"

Tier blinked rapidly before asking, "Wha-what?"

Her heart did a somersault in her chest as Kenshin gave her a wolfish lopsided grin, "I asked 'how are you, Halibel-san?'"

Tier's eyes narrowed as she thought, _Harribel-san is it? Why did you call me that, Kenshin?_

Tier answered stiffly, "I am fine, Kenshin, thank you."

She got a little satisfaction from seeing a small wince from Kenshin at her familiarity in greeting him, betrayed by nothing more than a slight tightening of the skin around his eyes. Tier smiled at the thought that she alone could read him so easily, that she understood almost every one of his little ticks. She had to fight back a blush as her aqua eyes met his midnight blue and sparks seemed to charge the air around them…

* * *

 **Retsu**

Retsu and the rest of her team had fallen silent after the initial exchange of greetings, watching the scene unfolding before them all. She had to smile inwardly as she observed the budding relationship between her most promising student and her son. Retsu had noticed the way the two of them acted around each other, both of them the most talented of their generation, the most sure of their skills, were reduced to all awkwardness and insecurity around each other. She heaved a sigh, as cute as the scene in front of her was, and it was absolutely adorable, there was work to be done. Retsu cleared her throat to gain everyone's attention…

* * *

 **Kenshin**

The sound of his mom clearing her throat snapped Kenshin out of his daze, much to the enjoyment of Tensuga, if the sound of her barely contained laughter at his embarrassment was any indication. He frustratingly thought, _how can this girl in front of me reduce me to this simpleton who can't form a coherent thought when no other girl that we went to school with, or even any of the daughters of the noble clans scattered throughout the country that have been thrown at me do this? Why do I find myself reacting to her mere presence?_

He could hear Tensuga's laughter in her voice as she answered from his inner world, _**Because she is like you. The two of you are SO self-sacrificing that you see**_ **NO** _ **value in your own lives. Is it so hard to believe that someone who is like you would see value in you? The fact that you see value in her should answer**_ **THAT** _ **question.**_

He closed his eyes for a moment and realized that, snide comment aside, Tensuga was right, again, he did see value in the girl in front of him. Kenshin opened his eyes and found himself entranced by the aqua blue eyes that were looking at him with a worried look in them, as if she didn't understand what was happening to him. He gave Tier that smile that he saved just for her and was about to say something when his mom's second bout of clearing her throat derailed any thoughts that he may have had…

* * *

 **Tier**

Tier had felt her pulse race when Kenshin had given her that small smile that she had never seen from him before, a smile that seemed to be just for her. Her brow furrowed as she asked herself, _what is this? Why do I feel this way? I don't deserve the attention he gives me._

She was shaken out of her revere as Retsu-sensei cleared her throat, "Now that the pleasantries are out of the way, shall we move on to the reason we are here?"

Tier watched as Kenshin turned his head to look at his mother as said woman continued, "Kenshin, I need you to help Tier release her zanpaktou as her own father is too scared of his wife to push their daughter to that point."

Tier was stunned, _why would she ask Kenshin to help me release my zanpaktou? I mean, I know that my father has been a bit hesitant to train with me for fear of hurting me and pissing mom off, but to go so far as to ask Retsu-sensei to have her son help me?... Something doesn't fully add up here._

She turned and looked at her sensei, "Sensei, why would you ask your son to train with me when my father is perfectly capable of training with me?"

Tier felt a jolt run through her as her sensei chuckled and spoke, "Because he asked if my son could help you get through the block you seem to be having, isn't that right, Kisuke-san."

Tier whirled on her father who suddenly had his favorite fan up in front of his face in a poor attempt hide his sheepish smile as he said, the laughter coloring his voice, "Hai, Retsu-san. Fujiko-chan doesn't like it when I bring our daughter home bruised after one of our training sessions."

Tier gave him a hard stare that was a great imitation of her mother's patented 'I will break you' stare, and was about to say something when she heard someone chuckle behind her, a sound that sent her heart fluttering, "Oi, Urahara-sensei, you didn't tell me that you had such an amazing and beautiful daughter. Well, Tier, shall we get started and leave these old people to their gossiping?"

Tier looked at Kenshin and saw the smile in his eyes as her heart fluttered and she nodded, not trusting her voice, "Hai, Kenshin."…

* * *

 **Kisuke**

A few moments later, Kisuke, Kenpachi, Retsu, and the rest of Team Three were standing on the same outcropping of rock that Retsu and Kenpachi had watched Kenshin release his zanpaktou from. As they watched, Kisuke felt a little scared, despite his outward appearance of calm. He knew that his daughter would be alright, that she was strong enough to stand on her own. The question was if she would recognize her own strength, her own value, and who better to show her than someone who valued her more than anything. As they watched, both fighters drew their swords and prepared to fight…

* * *

 **Tier**

Tier looked across at Kenshin as she drew her sword, "I am ready when you are, Kenshin."

She watched him raise an eyebrow as he drew his otachi with his left hand and the wakazashi with his right, "Are you truly ready, Tia?"

She was about to answer when Kenshin became nothing more than a blur and she had just enough time to bring her sword up to deflect his blade. As their swords met with an unmistakable metal-on-metal screech, she was feeling confident in her ability to fight against him until she felt a small tug on the armored undershirt she was wearing at her waist causing her to gasp. She jumped back and looked down, seeing a small cut in the mesh armor shirt she wore under her white jacket, exposing her caramel skin. Tier looked at Kenshin and realized that during his charge, he had reversed which blade was being held in which hand, the otachi that was his zanpaktou was now in his right while the wakazashi was in his left. She tried to think on when he could have switched, but wasn't given the opportunity as Kenshin swung the otachi at her, bringing it up to where he held it over his left shoulder with his right arm across his chest and bringing it across in a powerful slash that she was again able to intercept and stand for just a moment before she was sent flying backwards several dozen feet into another rock formation. She felt the rock give underneath her at impact and felt her breath get forced out of her in a loud _whoosh_.

As she tried to extract herself from the rock face, Tier heard Kenshin heave a sigh, "Obviously you are not ready if you can't even hear your zanpaktou's screams for you. She tried to warn you about which hand I had Tensuga in on that first attack, but you could not hear her," he shook his head, "If you can't even communicate with your zanpaktou, then there is really nothing I can do."

With that, Tier watched as he turned and started walking back towards where their parents and her team were waiting, placing his sword against his back so that it's 'sheathe' would cover the blade again. Tier felt anger and hurt at the obvious rejection, at the fact that he thought that she wasn't even worth his time to train with. Again she felt that horrible depression and self-loathing settling in. She looked down at the zanpaktou in her right hand, directing all of her anger and pain towards it, feeling those negative emotions build and build inside of her until she arched her back and let them out in an inhuman reiatsu-infused bellow towards the roof…

* * *

 **Kenshin**

Kenshin had started to walk away from the girl that he cared about, _sorry, Tier, but this is a lesson that you must learn on your own._

Inside his head Kenshin heard Tensuga speak to him, **"You're right. You heard the pain of her zanpaktou. You felt it when our blades connected. This is the only way for her to see it."**

Kenshin sighed again, _Yes, I know, but does it have to hurt so much?_

He heard Tensuga heave a sigh, **"I know, little one. I know how much you care for her and how she makes you feel safe enough to be around others. I know that you want nothing more than to rush back to her and hold her and comfort her, but she needs to learn this lesson on her own."**

Kenshin was about to respond when he heard Tier let loose an inhuman bellow behind him, one that nearly broke his heart to hear and crumbled his resolve until he felt the sharp rise in her reiatsu as the bellow died suddenly. He smiled to himself as he turned back around to see a brilliant golden shimmer surround Tier, _It looks like she is listening finally. Good luck, Tier-chan…_

* * *

 **Tier**

As she had been letting all of her emotions out in that bellow, she suddenly felt something strange happen, as if she was being yanked backwards and into darkness. She suddenly found herself falling through massive storm clouds that covered everything below her. Tier held her arms up before her in an X-block to protect herself as she fell through the clouds. What caught her attention as soon as she fell through the clouds was what looked like the surface of an ocean that was being whipped into frenzy by the storm that was hammering rain and scything at the surface with constant hurricane-force winds. As far as she could see in any direction, there were waves as big as mountains cresting and crashing down. The whole scene was breathtaking until Tier realized that she was going to hit the tumultuous surface of the storm-blackened sea at near terminal velocity. She tried to tuck herself into a ball to protect herself somewhat, but she needn't have bothered as she was broadsided by a wave the size of a mountain, knocking the breath from her as it forced her body spread-eagle just before impact in the surface and forcing her under the surface as the wave crested and slammed back into the stormy sea.

Tier felt numb after the impact. It felt as if she had been thrown against a brick wall at over three hundred miles an hour, everything was on fire, and to top it off, she couldn't breathe. That realization forced her into action as she started clawing and flailing towards the surface and what little light there was in this storm-beaten and forsaken place. After what seemed like an eternity, Tier gasped and sputtered as her head broke through the surface of the storm-broken sea.

She didn't even have time to get her bearings as she felt herself being lifted by another massive wave, this one stretched from horizon to horizon and seemed to be as tall as the hokage monument. Tier managed to take a breath an instant before the wave crashed back into the sea with another bone-jarring and deafening impact that caused a ringing in her ears and dots in her vision.

Tier tried a half dozen times more to reach the surface, each time to have the same result: reach the surface just to be caught in a mountain-sized wave and slammed back under water, each time just a little deeper than the time before. After her most recent attempt to reach the surface, Tier was too tired to try to reach the surface again and let herself sink into the black depths thinking, _this is how I end. This is right. Now Kenshin can find someone worthy of his love and forget about me._

As she sank, movement in her peripheral vision caught Tier's attention and as she turned her head to look, she saw a massive shadow that seemed to be taking shape as it drew closer to her. It was maybe a hundred yards from her when a flash of lightening above the surface illuminated the creature. Tier felt that cold hand of fear clutch at her heart as in that flash of light, she found herself looking at a great white shark that had to be at least seventy-five feet in length and slid through the water with a minimal of effort. She came out of her revere of the world's most perfect predator to suddenly find the energy to try to escape to the surface once again, her arms and legs thrashing, all the while watching as the massive gray and white shape slid through the water with all the patience of a predator that knew its prey was trapped.

When the shark drew even with her, Tier felt an even greater fear because instead of the cold eyes of an apex predator, she found herself staring into an eye as big around as her fist that was an icy blue in color and held a cunning intelligence. What happened next surprised her even more, the shark spoke to her, its voice a decidedly feminine tenor, **"Why have you not called my name, Tier Harribel-Urahara?"**

Tier was surprised, "I-I don't know, maybe I was afraid."

The shark spoke to her again, anger turning its voice into a near-growl, **"Why would you fear me so much as to try to ignore my existence? Is it because of that dragon-boy?"**

Tier shook her head, "No, it's not because of Kenshin. If anything, he has inspired me to push harder."

The shark seemed to laugh at her, a cold merciless laugh that sent a chill down Tier's spine because of the cold fury it conveyed, **"'Push harder', you say? If that was the case, then you would have tried to communicate with me instead of** **IGNORING** **me for six months since awakening me while you were still in the academy! You don't see your precious dragon-boy do that, do you? Let me answer the question:** **NO** **, you don't! He values and trusts the spirit of his zanpaktou, yet you continue to treat me as if I was nothing more than a tool for you to use and discard at the earliest opportunity! You don't give a damn about my feelings, about how much it hurts for you to treat me as if I am a** _ **monster**_ ** _!_ "**

Tier was taken aback by the reiatsu that the shark was radiating. It was so full of rage and pain that she felt as if her breath being stolen from her lungs. The pressure that was being exerted by the shark's reiatsu was causing the water around the two of them to become heavy enough to cause her bones to groan under the weight of the water crushing her from every side.

She was about to give up and submit to the fact that she had been a horrible samurai and to offer her life if it would ease the shark's suffering, but then she felt something in the insane reiatsu that the shark was radiating. For a moment Tier couldn't identify it, but then the answer came to her: pain and sorrow. Pain and sorrow so deep that Tier's heart felt like it would break from just being this close to the shark. Before she knew what she was doing, Tier pushed herself forward through the water and spread her arms wide to embrace the shark on its flank with one arm going under the shark's jaw and the other stretching back to the first of its several gills. As she pressed her body against the shark's flank in an effort to comfort the animal, Tier whispered, her voice reflecting the pain that the shark felt, "I'm sorry. I am so sorry for all of the pain that I have caused you. I did not mean to. I was afraid. The first time that we met, your size and power frightened me. I didn't mean to treat you like that, but I was afraid. Please, I beg your forgiveness."

Tier had her eyes shut so tight trying to hold back the tears that threatened to spill out and mix with the water around her, and so focused on her apology that she didn't notice that she was now pressed against something that was so soft and resilient until she felt a pair of arms encircle her and that same beautiful tenor spoke in her ear, **"I am sorry too. I didn't mean to frighten you. Ten-chan is always telling me that I go overboard when I am meeting new people that I tend to frighten them away. I nearly scared you away, my dear, sweet girl."**

Tier's eyes snapped open and in that moment that the woman she was hugging was holding her against a bosom that would give Tsunade-sama a run for her money. When she pulled back from the woman, Tier gasped at what she saw. Before her was a woman with a flowing main of crimson hair, flawless porcelain skin, a beautiful pair of icy blue eyes, an alluring yet muscular hour-glass figure with the a fore mentioned impressive bust, a narrow waist that showed a flat washboard stomach that flared into shapely hips and on down to long and soft yet muscular legs. The really surprising thing was how little the woman was wearing. She had armor that came up and covered the bottom half of her face from just below her eyes all the way to her jaw line and was shaped like a shark's jaws with row upon row of serrated teeth, the bone jaw covering continued down to cover her throat, shoulders with what looked like fin-shaped protrusions that acted as pauldrons, down her flank and under her bust, acting as a bra of sorts to maintain her decency, and on to a small bone-armor skirt that fell to her mid-thigh. The woman's legs from her feet to her knees and her arms from her hands to her elbows were encased in bone-armor in the shape of armored boots and gauntlets. The whole ensemble seemed to come together on her back where a massive shark fin stood straight back from the armor that covered her from the bone skirt to the back of her neck. All-in-all it was a fierce appearance befitting a female warrior of her stature.

The other thing that Tier noticed was that the woman gave off an almost regal air that made her feel like she should bow to the woman because she had to be royalty of some sort.

Tier was shaken out of her admiring the woman in front of her as the woman brought her hand up and cupped Tier's left cheek as she said, **"Now that we understand each other, how about we talk about your release of my shikai?"** …

* * *

 **Kenshin**

Kenshin breathed a sigh of relief as he felt Tier's reiatsu stabilize after several scary minutes of it wildly fluctuating up and down. At it's peak, Tier's reiatsu was nearly as high as his own currently and at it's lowest, her reiatsu was so small as to almost be non-existent, which worried Kenshin greatly. He conversed with Tensuga in his inner world, _It seems that her zanpaktou has broken through whatever barrier was blocking their communications with each other._

He heard Tensuga hum, **"Indeed. It was touch and go there for a couple of minutes. Now let's see what happens from here."** …

* * *

 **Tier**

Tier looked at the armored woman who was the spirit of her zanpaktou and nodded, "I am ready."

She could tell that the woman was smiling under the bone mask because of the way the skin around the woman's eyes crinkled, **"Good, now take a ninjato stance.** **Always move forward, never retreat."** _ **…**_

* * *

 **Kenshin**

Kenshin watched as Tier stepped into a classic ninjato stance with her feet spread in an L-shaped stance and shoulder width apart, knees bent low, weight on the balls of her feet, sword held in a right handed reverse grip with the back of the blade resting against her forearm with the hilt held out in front of her left shoulder with her left arm protecting her mid section. Kenshin had to smile as he felt Tier's reiatsu rise sharply, _that's it Tier_ …

* * *

 **Tier**

The woman spoke to Tier again, **"Always stand between the innocent and those who would do them harm."** _ **…**_

* * *

 **Kenshin**

Kenshin brought his hand up to block the dust from his face so that he could watch Tier's release as her reiatsu continued to rise, taking on a golden glow around her…

* * *

 **Tier**

The armored woman spoke to Tier again, **"Never ignore those in need."** _ **…**_

* * *

 **Kenshin**

Kenshin's smile grew as the glow became a full blown torrent of golden light radiating from Tier as the air began to get uncomfortable for him and a slight tremor began shaking the ground under his feet…

* * *

 **Shizune**

For Shizune, the scene before her, while not new because she and the rest of Team Three had been there for Isane's first release, was completely foreign to her. She hadn't expected the sparring match between Kenshin and Tier to end so quickly or for Tier to cry out like she did, but this was downright scary. The air was far heavier than it had been when Isane had released and the ground was shaking a lot more right now. In other words, she was scared for her blonde teammate…

* * *

 **Tier**

The armored woman spoke to Tier again, **"Be merciless to your enemies as long as they seek to harm those who you hold dear."** **...**

* * *

 **Kisuke**

Kisuke Urahara was watching his daughter's release with great interest as her reiatsu continued to rise, _now my dearest daughter, what kind of release will yours be?..._

* * *

 **Tier**

The armored woman spoke to Tier for the last time, **"This is your resolve, never let it waiver, even in the face of more powerful foes. Now repeat after me…"…**

* * *

 **Kenshin**

Kenshin heard Tier barely whisper, "Ute, Tiburon (Hunt, Imperial Shark Empress)."

Suddenly, the reiatsu that had been building vanished in a loud _CRACK_ that was accompanied by a massive shockwave of golden reiatsu that kicked up a lot of dust and laid all but Kenshin, Kenpachi, and Retsu flat.

He watched with great interest as the dust began to settle. In the center of the explosion stood Tier with her sword held to one side in her right hand and swimming through the air around her was what had to be the largest shark that Kenshin had ever thought could possibly exist in their world made of the same golden colored light that was Tier's reiatsu. The sword she held low and to the right had a bronze pommel that featured a ring that was about an inch across at the end, an icy blue over gray straight hilt, a guard that formed a capital T with the hilt inline with the blade and featured a ring that matched the one on the pommel at the end of right horizontal part of the T-shaped hilt and guard, and a broad blade that featured a straight spine with a cutting edge that was also straight with a curve at the tip to form what almost looked like a steel outline of where a sword blade should be. In length, Tier's sword was between a katana and kadochi (medium length sword) in length and was polished steel in color. Kenshin also noticed that the sheath for her sword had changed as well; it was now as broad as and shaped like the blade of her zanpaktou.

Kenshin chuckled as Tier opened her eyes to look at him, "Excellent, now the real fun can begin."

He watched as Tier seemed to echo the smile that was blooming across his face as she responded, "Indeed. Shall we continue?"

With that, the shark that had been swimming protectively around Tier dove back into her sword and the two of them charged at each other, their fight recommencing in earnest, the pair wearing matching insane grins.

* * *

 **A/N: Wow, fourth chapter up and over eight thousand words in length!**

 **I really appreciate all of those who have read my story and those who have chosen to follow it. Thank you.**

 **Respond or PM me with questions that I will post in a separate chapter just for answering questions in the near future, so... write and I will try to answer to the best of my ability.**


	5. The Entrants

**A/N: Here is the next Chapter!**

 **1\. Speech/Thoughts Key:**

 **"Well... that was different."** \- **Zanpaktou Spirit/Biiju/Summoned Creature Speech**

 _ **So much for subtlety... might as well blow everything up now.**_ \- **Zanpaktou Spirit/Biiju/Summoned Creature Thoughts**

"Why are we waiting here? Let's just go kill this guy and get this over with." - Human Speech

 _Uh, why are they staring at me? It's not like I have a horn growing out of my forehead... Wait, oh god I do have a horn growing out of my forehead._ \- Human Thoughts

 **2\. I have no claim of ownership to Bleach, Naruto, Naruto Shippuuden, or Rurouni Kenshin, so there.**

 **On with the story!**

* * *

 **The Entrants**

* * *

 **Four Months Later**

 **Minato**

Minato walked into the conference room that was in the Hokage building that rested in the center of the village well after the meeting to discuss the participants for the upcoming chuunin exams had started. It had been four months since Kenshin released his zanpaktou and Minato and the rest of team seven had watched in stunned amazement as Kenshin's abilities continued to grow at a rapid pace. As he opened the door, everyone present turned to look at him. He just smiled and said, "Sorry I'm late Hokage-sama."

Hokage Sarutobi was sitting in the seat of honor that was in the center of the long table that dominated one end of the room and had the twin flags of the Fire Nation and Konoha hanging behind him. Before the table sat all of the other jounin from the village who had teams of genin assigned to them seated cross legged on cushions with one spot open for Minato to sit down on. He sat and looked around. There were only about a dozen of the village's jounin and samurai captains that had teams of young samurai and shinobi assigned to them and only three of them, himself included had rookies, genin or enlisted samurai who are only in their first year out of the academy.

Minato took a moment to look around at the other jounin in the room. Very quickly he spotted the three that were known throughout the world as the Legendary Sannin no Konohagakure: Lord Orochimaru, Lady Tsunade, and his own mentor, Lord Jiraiya.

Minato looked at each of them in turn. First was Lord Orochimaru. Lord Orochimaru was an orphan of the First Great Ninja War and had grown up in the village with almost no one to care for him. He had grown into a man that matched Minato's six-foot-two height with an almost sickly thin frame that hid a lot of strength and deep chakra reserves, long black hair that fell to his waist and was allowed to free-fall, bone white skin that added to the sickly appearance of the man, gaunt and sickly features including purple marks around his slanted eyes and stretched downwards following the outline of the sides of his nose as well as stretching away from the outside corners of his eyes for almost an inch, and the most creepy feature of the man, the gold eyes that reminded Minato of a pit viper in how cold and devoid of life they were. He was wearing his usual gray kimono untucked and gathered around his waist by a black obi, black pants and shinobi boots. Orochimaru-sama was a master of many jutsu and had a summoning contract with the Sennin Hebi no Ryuuchi Cave (Sage Snakes of Ryuuchi Cave) meaning that he could summon one of these massive snakes at will. There was always something about Orochimaru-sama that made Minato extremely uneasy.

Next to Orochimaru was Lady Tsunade. Lady Tsunade was small, barely topping five foot-four with an hourglass frame that was both alluring and voluptuous with an overdeveloped bosom that was the envy of every woman in the village and Minato's own sensei swore that they were double-F cup at least, and he would know since the two of them were married, lightly tanned skin, light blonde hair that reached her bottom and was kept in two pig tails that came off the bottom of the back of her head and had bangs that framed her beautiful round face, clear brown eyes, full lips that were almost always set in a frown, and a purple diamond that was centered in her wide forehead. She was known as a genius in shinobi medicine having discovered several advanced medical jutsu and created even more and for her violent temper, which when combined with her superhuman strength, could literally destroy mountains. Lady Tsunade was wearing a light colored short sleeved t-shirt that was cut low in the front and exposed her flat abdomen, a pair of black shorts with bandages around her right thigh, and black heeled shinobi boots.

The last of the Sannin of Konoha and Minato's mentor was sitting at the front of the row that Minato was sitting in, Lord Jiraiya. Lord Jiraiya was a bear of a man that stood closer to seven feet than six with a broad and barrel-chested frame that was thick with muscle, hair as white as snow and completely out of control that fell to his waist, strong and handsome features, black eyes, and red marks that went from the outside corners of his eyes down to his chin. He was the practical jokester of the three, always doing stuff to annoy the Sandaime Hokage, the Lord Third Hokage, Sarutobi-sama, who had been the Sannin's own mentor when the three of them had been genin, was also in love with Lady Tsunade and kept his distance most times unless she needed the kind of emotional support that he could give her, was an upbeat and thoughtful person, and had a horrible yet well deserved reputation as a pervert. He was wearing his normal light gray short kimono and pants with a black obi tied around his waist, a large red vest that hung to the middle of his thighs, and a pair of stilted clogs. Lord Jiraiya had studied with the toad sages and had learned the secrets of sage mode and the summoning technique for the toads, the later that he had passed on to Minato.

Minato's musings were broken by a puff of smoke rising from the man sitting at the place of honor facing Minato and the others, Lord Third Hokage Sarutobi. He was a small man, standing only about five-foot eight inches with a shock of graying hair that surrounded the bald top of his head, handsome features that had been weathered by age and wars of the past, piercing black eyes, a goatee that matched his hair and thin eyebrows, a slender yet still powerful frame, and gnarled hands that had seen much use in the course of his life. He was wearing the traditional Hokage uniform of a red tunic that fell to his ankles and was gathered around the waist by a narrow corded belt, a white duster that fell to the middle of his calves, a white scarf around his neck with the ends tucked into the folds, and the red Hokage hat that was shaped like a diamond and overshadowed his face with a point of the hat that faced forward being white with the kanji character for fire centered in it in red. He was the master of a thousand jutsu, many taught to him by Sarutobi-sama's own mentors, the Shodaime (First Lord) and Nidaime (Second Lord) Hokages.

Minato watched as the Hokage's eyes swept the room as he released a puff of smoke from his tobacco pipe, "We are here to discuss which of our village's genin and unranked shinobi and samurai respectively will represent the village in the Chuunin Exams next month. Now, many of you have already told me that you are entering your genin and samurai in the exam, so the focus of this meeting will be those who have first year samurai and shinobi. So let's begin. Retsu, will you begin?"

Retsu bowed deeply from her seat as she said, "Hokage-sama, I plan to enter all three of my students in the Chuunin Exams."

Several other mentors were surprised by this declaration, but Minato wasn't. After all, he had witnessed firsthand the improvement of Retsu-sama's team as their teams trained together regularly over the last four months. The Hokage puffing on his pipe seemed to signal everyone to be silent, "Very well, and finally, Inoichi?"

Inoichi was about Minato's height with a similar yet slightly broader build, pale blonde hair that fell to his hips that he kept pulled up in a pony tail, pale blue eyes the color of ice glaciers, strong features including a prominent nose, square jaw, and high cheek bones. He was the new head of the Yamanaka Clan whose psychic techniques were renowned throughout the world, and was the mentor for team eight. After he bowed, Inoichi's strong tenor filled the room, "I will enter two of my first years into the exam, Asuma Sarutobi and Rangiku Matsumoto. Asuma has proven that he has the skills and leadership to be a chuunin and Rangiku has released the shikai form of her zanpaktou. They will need to be teamed with someone for the exam so that they can enter, Hokage-sama."

Minato spoke before someone else did, "Forgive me Hokage-sama for interrupting but I only plan to enter two of my students as well, Kakashi Hatake and Kenshin Shihoin," Minato paused as he looked to the Sandaime for permission to continue and once he received it in the form of a microscopic nod from the Sandaime, "I would recommend that we group my students and Inoichi-san's students together to form a team for the purpose of the Chuunin Exams."

He watched as the Hokage smiled at him and said, "That is a very good recommendation Minato. Are there any objections?"

There were a few mumbled arguments from various points in the room, but no one spoke out loud. After a couple of minutes, the Hokage spoke again, "Very well, the two first years that Inoichi recommended shall be paired with the two that Minato recommended for the purpose of the Chuunin Exams. Their designation will be team seventy-eight."

Minato tuned the rest of the meeting out and got up to leave when the rest of them were dismissed an hour and a half later. As he was walking through the halls of the Hokage mansion towards the stairs down to the ground floor and the exit, Minato heard someone hurrying to catch up with him so he waited at the top of the stairs as Inoichi Yamanaka came hurrying around the corner to catch up to him. Minato nodded, "Inoichi-san."

Inoichi returned the nod as he caught up, "Minato-san," he fell into step with Minato as the two of them descended the stairs down to the first floor, "thank you for volunteering the idea of grouping our students together for the Chuunin Exams."

Minato smiled at his academy classmate, "Don't mention it. I would rather have my students grouped with yours than anyone else's."

Inoichi gave Minato a grateful smile, "Really, why?"

Minato began to answer as the two of them reached the bottom of the stairs, walked across the entryway of the building, and exited the building via the double doors opposite the stairwell, "Because, I know that both of my first years that I am entering get along with yours and that Rangiku has a crush on Kenshin, though he doesn't feel the same. This would be a great opportunity to find out how big of a crush it is and if it will affect how they operate on missions."

Inoichi chuckled, "That's Minato-san for you; always thinking three steps ahead of everyone else."

Minato chuckled as well, "Shall we get our teams together tomorrow so that our four can start training together?"

Inoichi nodded, "What time and where?"

Minato thought about it for a moment, "Training Ground Seven, say: noon."

Inoichi agreed and the two of them went their separate ways to go tell their students the good news…

* * *

 **That Afternoon**

 **Minato**

Minato made his way through the village towards the training grounds where he knew his team would be after he had spent the remainder of the morning with his fiancee deciding on wedding decorations and the guest list since the meeting had let out. When he reached the training grounds, Minato wound his way through the forest and stopped at the edge of one of the clearings to watch. He watched as Kenshin stepped into a long and low taijutsu stance. He nodded at his opponent, "Come on Rin, you won't be able to make it too far in the Chuunin Exams like that. Come at me like you meant to kill me."

Rin straightened herself up and stepped into a taijutsu stance across from Kenshin. Minato could see from where he was standing behind the tree that they had been at it for a little while, probably since early that morning. Minato saw Kakashi leaning back against a tree nearby watching Rin and Kenshin. Leaning against the trunk of the same tree was the sword form of Tensuga, its two tone blade wrapped in the streamer that came off of the pommel of the sword and somehow had expanded to enshroud the blade. Resting on the ground next to Kakashi were the pieces of Kenshin's armor stacked on top of his duster that he normally wore for missions, folded neatly.

As Minato watched, Rin took a deep breath and let it out slowly, steadying herself with the act of breathing. He watched as Kenshin and Rin stood perfectly still for a moment before Rin sprang into action, using Konoha Shunshin no Jutsu (Hidden Leaf Body Flicker Technique) to attack Kenshin. Rin reappeared in the air and launched an ax kick at his shoulder. An instant before the kick landed, Kenshin sidestepped the attack and retaliated with an open palm attack aimed at her stomach. He watched as Rin deflected the attack and tried to hit Kenshin with an elbow strike that he caught with his left hand while firing a knee that caught Rin in the stomach. Minato watched as Rin disappeared in a 'poof' of white smoke only to be replaced by a log of wood that fell to the ground. He watched as Kenshin smiled, "Nicely done, Rin. Well timed and well executed."

Minato watched with surprise as Rin appeared out of shunshin behind Kenshin after using the kawarimi no jutsu (replacement technique) and launched a roundhouse kick that she expected to connect with the side Kenshin's head, but the problem was that her target was just an after image of Kenshin who had already used shunpo to attack her from behind with an open palm and sent her flying across the clearing, the after image shimmering out of existence as her attack had passed through its head. Kenshin said as Rin flipped and twisted in midair so that she could land on her feet facing Kenshin, "However, your choice of attacks after using kawarimi no jutsu needs to improve along with the timing of your follow-on attack. Though, it is awesome that you can use the shunshin no jutsu now."

Minato watched as Rin landed on her feet with a hand down to slow her skid and come to a complete stop about fifty yards from where she had been previously. He thought as he watched her straighten herself up, _she's near her limit_.

He decided to step out of the forest at that moment and walked over to where Kakashi was leaning against the tree. Minato leaned against the tree next to Kakashi and said, "Good afternoon Kakashi. How is Rin doing?"

Kakashi didn't take his eyes off of Rin and Kenshin as the two of them came together again in front of Minato and Kakashi, exchanging a flurry of blows. The exchange lasted for a few seconds before Rin was sent flying again. Kakashi shrugged, "She's improving but still nowhere near where she needs to be for the Chuunin Exams."

Minato nodded, "And Obito?"

Kakashi gestured over to their right, "He's doing even worse than Rin. He was knocked out by me within the first couple of seconds and has been out for almost half an hour, and this is the fourth time that he's been knocked out today."

Minato sighed, "Well better go wake him up; I have some news from the meeting this morning."

Kakashi said as he used his shoulders to leverage himself off of the tree, "Hai, hai."…

A couple of minutes later, the team was gathered together in front of him as they stood under the same tree. Minato looked over the four expectant faces and took a deep breath before beginning, "As you know, the meeting with the other jounin in the village where we decided which of the village's teams of genin shinobi and samurai who will be entered into next month's Chuunin Exams. The complete list of entrants from the village will be posted the day of the first exam. Unfortunately, not all of you will be participating."

Obito frowned, "Sensei, what do you mean by 'not all of us'? I thought you said that we would have to be entered as a team."

Minato nodded, "That is correct Obito, I did say that, but there is a way around entering an entire team if the mentor feels that not all of the genin are ready. That means that I can enter any number of you up to the full team into the exams. For this first attempt at the exams since you left the academy, only Kenshin and Kakashi will enter. They are being partnered with two other rookies from your class and will comprise a full team for the purpose of the exams."

Kenshin asked, "Who are the others that we are being teamed with?"

Minato smiled at him, "Asuma Sarutobi and Rangiku Matsumoto. They are from Inoichi Yamanaka's team eight," then he looked at Kenshin, "What's wrong Kenshin?"

Kenshin looked away, "Uhh… nothing, Minato-sensei."

Kakashi suddenly appeared behind his friend, his eyes narrowed and a smile on his face under his mask, looking at his friend and said in a teasing voice, "I think Kenshin has a crush on Rangiku."

Kenshin rolled his eyes and said, "No I don't. I just hate fan girls and she is the worst of the lot."

Suddenly Kakashi looked deflated as a chance to poke fun at his best friend disappeared. He asked in a downtrodden tone, "Then who do you like?"

Suddenly Kenshin smiled mischievously, "Wouldn't you like to know and what about how you act around your 'Rin-chan', neh?"

Suddenly it was Kakashi who looked embarrassed as his face went red and Rin's jaw dropped in shock. She only stayed like that for a second or two before Rin asked, "How did you know that we're dating?"

Kenshin then smiled at her, "One, you just told me. Two, and all too obvious: Kakashi refuses to go all out with any of the other fangirls for fear of hurting you and I am guessing, incurring the wrath of your father in the process, and he prefers to stand close to you as often as he can, and he always spirits you away as soon as we are done with training or get back from a mission. Third, he is always staring at you as if he is thinking of doing some of the things that he reads in those Icha Icha novels with you," then turning to Kakashi he continued, "am I right, Kakashi?"

Suddenly, both Kakashi and Rin looked embarrassed at their supposed secret had been found out.

Minato couldn't resist, "Kakashi, if your face turns any redder, it'll change your hair color and people will think that you're an Uzumaki."

Everyone except Kakashi laughed at his joke and they laughed even harder when Kakashi mumbled under his breath, "It's not funny."

Kenshin said as he draped an arm over Kakashi shoulders and wiped away the tears that had started to form with his other hand, "Come on, Kakashi, it's a little funny. Think about it, you, Mister Unflappable Kakashi, reduced to being at a girl's beck and call."

Kakashi gave Kenshin a friendly yet hard elbow to the ribs that had Kenshin moving away from him, still chuckling.

Minato was glad that none of the other three noticed the dark and malevolent look that flickered across Obito's face for a moment before disappearing behind a forced smile. He was going to need to talk to Obito and soon about the 'Uchiha Curse of Darkness' and hopefully keep him from falling to it. Minato broke out of his thoughts and got his students' attention again as he said, "They will be coming to training ground seven tomorrow to meet with us so that all of us can train with the four that will be entering the exams next month...

* * *

 **The Next Day**

 **Minato**

Minato and his team were waiting in the training grounds for Inoichi and his team to show up as noon approached. Kenshin was sitting Indian style on the ground with Tensuga resting unwrapped across his lap with the hilt to his left side and the cutting edge away from him, meditating. Kakashi was leaning against the same tree that he had leaned against yesterday during their training session. Rin sat on the ground next to Kakashi, studying a book that had advanced field medical techniques in it, taking notes on a scroll so that she could refer to her notes later. Obito was trying to grind a ditch into the ground with his pacing back and forth, impatient as always. Suddenly he stopped in his tracks and said, "When will they get here? I'm tired of waiting!"

Kakashi heaved a sigh, "Oi Obito. Why are you so impatient? You're not going through the Chuunin Exams this time."

Obito stared daggers at Kakashi, his voice dripping with acid, "Do you want me to show you that I could make it in the Exams if our sensei wasn't playing favorites?"

Minato watched as Kakashi smiled under his mask, "It's not my fault you haven't awakened your sharingan. Also, sensei has never played favorites with Kenshin and me. You are the one that he has spent the most time working with."

Before Minato could say anything to the two of them, Kenshin came out of his meditation and said, "Kakashi, that's enough. They're here."

All of them looked at the edge of the forest where Inoichi and his team would emerge from the trees in a few moments…

* * *

 **Rangiku**

Rangiku was nervous and she didn't understand why. She hadn't seen Kenshin since they left the academy six months ago. At the time she had hoped to be on the same team as him but it was not meant to be as she had been teamed with Asuma Sarutobi and Soi Fon while Kenshin had been teamed with Kakashi, Obito, and Rin. Rangiku had thought that being away from him would have caused the strange emotions that she had felt when the two of them had been around each other at the academy to dissipate in their time apart; that it was just a crush. But now, she questioned those thoughts because those strange feelings that she had had back then came roaring back ten-fold as soon as she and Asuma had heard that the two of them were going to be teamed with Kakashi and Kenshin.

She heaved a sigh and readjusted her shihakusho for the umpteenth time before resting her right hand on the hilt of her zanpaktou that was slid through the back of her pink obi, which she had tied in the traditional kimono fashion for women, a large bow at the small of her back, her hitai-ate hung loosely from where it was tied around her obi at her left hip. Her zanpaktou, Haineko (Ash Cat), was a fire-type zanpaktou that when she released, the blade would dissolve into an ash cloud that she could direct with her thoughts. It wasn't anywhere near as powerful as Byakuya's Senbonzakura (One Thousand Cherry Blossom Petals) but it had the added benefit of amplifying her fire-type hakudoh. When she had released for the first time, the guard had changed from the standard rectangular shape to a tulip-shape with the open end matching the spine of her unreleased blade and the hilt had changed to a maroon color that she found amazing.

She paused at the edge of the forest, taking another deep breath to try to steady her nerves, and asked out loud, "Why am I so nervous?"

Soi Fon answered in her usual mild tone, "Because you are about to see Kenshin-sama for the first time since we graduated from the academy and you have a crush on him."

Rangiku spun towards her, her face turning beet red below her wavy red-gold, waist-length hair, "W-w-what are you talking about?"

Soi Fon gave her a piercing stare with her coal black eyes, "That reaction is what I am talking about, Rangiku. You are supposed to be engaged to Byakuya Kuchiki-sama. Yet, every time you see the heir of my clan, you react as if you are in love with him. Those are dangerous emotions. Just so you know, I am supposed to be Kenshin-sama's chief bodyguard, so I cannot condone your infatuation with my lord if it puts his life in danger or risks the reputation of my clan," she paused as she crossed her arms across her chest and closed her eyes, "That being said, if you do _anything_ to place his life in danger, I will show you what I have learned about being the chief protector of the head of my clan and I will break you."

At that moment there was a blur of movement as someone came out of shunpo directly behind Soi Fon and a heavy hand landed on Soi Fon's small shoulder causing her coal black eyes to go wide with surprise and shock as a familiar voice heavy with amusement said from behind her, "Soi-neechan, I thought Shinji-sensei taught you better restraint than to threaten your teammate."

Soi Fon's face went pale as she spun from under Kenshin's hand and dropped to one knee with her head bowed, "Forgive me Kenshin-sama, I meant no disrespect. I was only act-"

Kenshin waived off the apology with the air of someone who didn't care for the formal apology and said in a teasing voice, "I know Soi Fon, I know, you were only acting in your capacity as my bodyguard. However, you threatened someone who is a friend and teammate to you. I will have to think of a proper punishment for you."

As he said the last sentence, a devilish half-smile that sent Rangiku's heart racing graced Kenshin's face, "I think I have an idea but we will have to discuss it later. Right now there are more pressing matters. Isn't that right, Rangiku?"

Rangiku felt her face getting warm and didn't trust herself to speak so she nodded her agreement. She watched as Kenshin chuckled at her discomfort. At that moment, Asuma stepped forward to save her from Kenshin's scrutiny while extending his hand towards Kenshin, "Nice to see you again Kenshin-san. It's been awhile."

Kenshin nodded as he took Asuma's offered hand, "It certainly has Asuma-san. How is your brother doing?"

"Well, thanks for asking. He's out on a mission right now."

At that moment, the fourth member of their team stepped forward to introduce himself. He had glossy black hair that he wore in bowl-cut, bushy black eyebrows, beetle black eyes, a narrow face that featured an over-sized nose, a medium build that was wrapped in a grass-green one piece leotard, baggy bright orange leggings that covered his lower legs from knees to ankles, blue shinobi boots, his hitai-ate on an ugly shade of faded pink head band that was tied around his waist like a belt, and a matching neckerchief tied around his neck. He offered his hand to Kenshin and inquired in a very loud and overly-dramatic voice, "Do you remember me Kenshin?," then without waiting for a response he said as he smiled what he must have thought a debonair smile, "Of course you do. After all, how could you forget the Green Beast of Konoha and Taijutsu Master, Gai Might?"

Rangiku watched as Soi Fon palmed her face in embarrassment, Asuma had a violent eye twitch start in his left eye while fingering the handle of one of his kunai, and she herself was at a loss for words.

Luckily for the three of them, Kenshin was not as he gave Gai a smile that was a bit unnerving and promised lots of pain, "Sorry, who are you again?"

Gai went from proud and self-important to deflated and disbelieving so fast that Rangiku thought that he must have given himself whiplash. He spoke again, his voice over-the-top sad and dejected as waterfalls streamed down his cheeks, "How could you forget me? We were in the same class at the academy and you sat two rows ahead of me?"

Rangiku watched as Kenshin gave Gai a look that was half disgust and half amusement, "Sorry, doesn't ring a bell, and I find it a little creepy that you kept track of how far in front of you I sat."

Gai had another whiplash-fast change of mood as he gave Kenshin what he meant to be a winning smile but came off as just plain creepy, "That is because you sat next to the man who is my eternal rival: Kakashi Hatake! He and I are meant, nay, destined to be rivals for the entirety of our lives!"

Kenshin moved away from Gai, one hand resting on one of his kunai in its sheathe on his duster as he said, "Riiiight, be sure to let him know when you see him,", then without missing a beat, "so Asuma, what have you been up to lately?"

With that the two friends fell into an easy conversation as they led the way to where the rest of Kenshin's team was waiting. Rangiku, Soi Fon, Gai, and Inoichi-sensei fell in behind the two friends and Rangiku took the time to study Kenshin. He had grown over the last five months, he was a good three inches taller than her now with a frame that had grown in breadth as well as leaning out into steel-like muscle. He moved differently too, no longer was he the gangly and awkward boy she had known and came to have feelings for at the academy but a young man who moved with all the deadly grace of an expert swordsman. His reiatsu was different too but she couldn't place why, but it had something to do with his zanpaktou, which was different than before. It was no longer shaped like a katana but an otachi that the end of the pommel came up to his shoulder when the blade tip was resting on the ground. She couldn't see the color of the blade because the entire length of the blade was wrapped in a streamer that came off of the pommel of the sword and caused the blade to almost look like it had been wrapped in bandages from the tip to where the tsuba would have been on a normal katana, between the bottom of the blade and the hilt, which was also wrapped in the same bandages as the blade.

Moments later all of them arrived at where Minato-sensei and the rest of Kenshin's team were waiting for them. When they arrived, Inoichi-sensei made the introductions for Rangiku's team, "Minato-san and your students, allow me to introduce my team: Asuma Sarutobi, Rangiku Matsumoto, Gai Might, and Soi Fon."

Rangiku watched as Minato-sensei gave all of them a winning smile, "It's a pleasure to meet all four of you. Now I would like to introduce my team to you, Inoichi-san and team eight: Kakashi Hatake, Obito Uchiha, Rin Nohara, and of course you've already meet the fourth member of my team, Kenshin Shihoin."

As he introduced each of them, Minato-sensei indicated all of them in turn, Kakashi with his mask and gravity-defying ash gray hair, Obito with his goggles, and Rin with her purple face marks and medical-nin kit.

Before anyone could say their hellos in a civil manner, Gai stepped forward and dramatically pointed at Kakashi and proclaimed in a voice that was far too loud for the close proximity in which they were standing, all the while a brilliant sunset on a beach with crashing waves and all shown behind him, "Kakashi Hatake, I am Gai Might and you are my eternal rival! I know that this is too much to take in, being the eternal rival of the Green Beast of Konoha, but you will get used to it, for it is our destiny to be rivals!"

Soi Fon's face again met her palm in embarrassment, Asuma's eye twitch, which had only developed after the four of them had been teamed together, came back with a vengeance as he started massaging the handle of one of his kunai again, Rangiku rolled her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose as what she called 'A Gai Headache' started, Obito's jaw was hanging open so far that it was in serious danger of coming unhinged, Rin turned pale in shock, and Kenshin looked like he was seriously trying to keep from laughing out loud at the ridiculousness that was Gai. Kakashi looked disinterested as he looked at Guy and said, "I'm sorry, who are you and did you say something?"

Gai's emotions whiplashed again to peg in the depressed direction as he fell to his knees, the sunset beach disappearing to be replaced by a massive thunderstorm that hammered Gai's back, the waterfalls of tears starting again, seriously it seemed to Rangiku as if Gai could cry rivers on demand, and he proclaimed in an even louder voice full of heart-wrenching sadness, "He didn't even hear what I said. I proclaimed him to be my eternal rival and he didn't hear what I said! Why, world, are you so cruel to Gai Might?"

Rangiku wasn't sure which was more unnerving, his unending and overly-dramatic declarations or his ability to cry rivers seemingly on demand.

After Gai was consoled by Rangiku, she still didn't understand why she always got stuck with 'Gai Cheer up Duty', and a few moments of general greetings and mingling, Minato-sensei gestured to get everyone's attention before he spoke, "Now that all of you have met, we can begin. From now until the beginning of the Chuunin Exams next month, all of us will be working together to get our four entrants ready for what they will face. So that we know what each of the four of you need to work on, the four of you will be facing each other in sparring matches. The first match will be Rangiku against Kenshin."

Rangiku was so surprised that her eyes suddenly shot to where Kenshin was standing, his face unreadable as he stepped to the center of the clearing, "Let's get started."

Rangiku stepped into the center opposite him. Her heart was hammering inside of her rib cage and her whole body was shaking. She looked at him as he stood there with his eyes closed and his arms folded across his chest. Rangiku was about to say something about how she felt about him, about how she had had a crush on him since their time at the academy, how she wanted to break her engagement with Byakuya Kuchiki and be with him, but before she could say anything, Kenshin spoke, "Before you say anything about being in love with me or wanting to be with me, you should know that I do like you, but not in the same way. I don't care for fangirls and if you want to have a chance with someone like Byakuya you need to show me that you are serious about it. Come at me as if you intend to kill me."

Rangiku looked at Kenshin with shock and disbelief as she felt the last glimmer of hope for a life outside of joining the Kuchiki Clan as Byakuya's wife evaporated with his words, "Wha-what?"

Kenshin gave her a hard look, disappointment turning his midnight blue eyes almost black, "Did I stutter? I said come at me with killer intent or you won't do either of us any good. If you can't, maybe the Kuchiki clan chose wrong. Maybe your sensei chose wrong."

Suddenly anger replaced fear in Rangiku and she put her hand on the hilt of her zanpaktou and gave Kenshin a look full of anger.

She watched as Kenshin gave her a smile that was altogether unnerving and predatory, "Good. That's a good look on you. Now attack me with that anger."

Rangiku charged at Kenshin and as she ran across the clearing at him, Rangiku drew her sword with her right hand and swung with her sword in a reverse grip, intending to catch him on the left side of his throat. The sword struck the side of Kenshin's neck but didn't cut it and she felt a sticky wetness between her fingers along with pain emanating from the palm of her right hand, but before she could wonder what the hell happened Kenshin responded, his left hand knocking the hilt out of her hand as he placed a hand against her stomach and whispered, "Hakudoh no Ich: Sho (Destructive Arts Number One: Thrust)," to send her flying across the clearing.

As she flew across the clearing, Rangiku thought, _how is he this powerful already? I couldn't even cut him with my zanpaktou and my hand was torn as if I had slid on concrete with it, and that hakudoh, I have never seen this much power put into that attack. What?_

Suddenly Kenshin appeared above her as she flew through the air, his midnight blue eyes holding a cold and calculating intelligence. She didn't even have time to react as he flipped in midair and landed an ax kick in her stomach, blasting the air from her lungs as the direction of her momentum was suddenly changed from horizontal to vertical as she accelerated towards the ground.

When she hit, the ground under her cratered from the force of her impact, Rangiku didn't have a chance to catch her breath as Kenshin came at her, intending to catch her on the ground. Rangiku rolled out of the way and staggered to her feet just to have to jump back as her own zanpaktou was thrown at her, the blade sticking in the ground where she had been standing moments before, her blood running down the hilt towards the tsuba.

Before she could formulate a move, Rangiku froze as she felt the kiss of cold steel against her neck and a cold voice next to her right ear, "How do you expect to be the wife of Byakuya Kuchiki if you can't even defend yourself for more than a few seconds?"

Anger flooded Rangiku as she tried to land an elbow in his ribs, but Kenshin had anticipated the attack and used shunpo to move away from her. She looked at him, her voice dripping with acid as she said, "What do you want from me? You've already proven how much more powerful than me you are! You've already told me that you don't feel the same way about me than I do about you! WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT FROM ME?!"

The ice in his voice cut off her rant completely or else she would have vented all of her anger and frustration at him, "I want you to stop being afraid."

The anger fled from her as she was surprised by his answer, "Wha-what do you mean? I am not afraid to fight you."

She watched as the eyebrow over his left eye arched upwards questioningly, his voice full of derision as he said, "Oh really, then why does your reiatsu and zanpaktou scream it?"

Rangiku asked unknowingly, "What do you mean?"

She watched as Kenshin heaved a sigh and gave her a hard look, "'What do I mean?' I mean that when you attacked me earlier the quality of your reiatsu, the dullness of your zanpaktou, and the sluggishness of your attack all screamed that you are afraid of cutting me, thus you couldn't. When you evaded, everything about you screamed that you are afraid of being cut. When you tried to protect the Kuchiki's honor, your reiatsu and anger screamed that you are afraid of failing them. This fear is the reason why that you are unable to cut me, why you are unable to defend yourself and the Kuchiki Clan's honor from me."

Rangiku didn't know what to say so she just watched as he reached over his left shoulder, wrapped his hand around the hilt of his zanpaktou, pulling it from its place on his back attached to the bandoleer that encircled his upper body from left shoulder to right hip and seemed to be made of red links like a chain, and as he brought the sword over and down, holding off to his left in a single handed grip, the streamer that came off of the pommel seemed to shrink back to about three feet in length. She was mesmerized by the large two-tone blade, thinking that the blade wasn't as beautiful as Byakuya's Senbonzakura with its one thousand cherry blossom petals that were each a blade that Byakuya could direct with his thoughts, but that it held its own savage beauty in its shape and simplicity. Rangiku looked from the blade to Kenshin's eyes, unable to read anything in his passive expression and the calculating look in his eyes.

She spoke again, "I don't understand what you are trying to say."

Kenshin sighed, "I guess there's nothing for it but to show you," then he turned his attention to Soi Fon, "Soi Fon, please erect a barrier to protect Minato-sensei and the other shinobi. I don't want to harm them."

Rangiku watched as Soi Fon moved to obey Kenshin's request but was stopped as Minato-sensei said, "If it is alright with you Kenshin, I would like to bear witness to what you are going to show Rangiku."

Inoichi-sensei was about to speak when Obito cut him off, "I want to see it too. Besides, it's not like you are really that strong anyways."

Kenshin closed his eyes for a moment and said, "Fine, guard Kakashi and Rin then."

Soi Fon replied as she moved between Kenshin and Rin who was standing next to Kakashi, "Hai, Kenshin-sama."

Rangiku thought, _okay, that's a little weird. Why would he ask her to do that? He can't be that much more powerful than me, can he?_

She watched as Kenshin closed his eyes, took a deep breath, held it for a few moments, white flames began to dance all along his form as his reiatsu rose. He stayed like that for a few seconds then suddenly he exhaled in a long, ragged breath, and his eyes snapped open, glowing with the light of his reiatsu as a peal of thunder rang out and his reiatsu began to exert pressure on the surrounding area, causing the air to become heavy and vibrate violently, the ground rumbling in tune with the vibrations. Rangiku's eyes went wide as the crushing weight of the reiatsu forced her and their sensei to their knees, while causing Obito and Gai to fall unconscious. What had started as a shimmer became a full-blown torrent of energy exuding from Kenshin and enveloping him and his zanpaktou. Rangiku became even more unnerved when she started to see shreds of another reiatsu intermingle with Kenshin's. This reiatsu appeared as tongues of black flame-like energy so dense that they appeared solid and seemed to be edged with Kenshin's reiatsu. Aside from the weight of the reiatsu, there was the fact that his reiatsu also felt like it was going to cut straight through her with its killer intent.

 _How is he this powerful already,_ she thought as she was there on her knees, barely able to breathe due to the weight of his reiatsu. Then she saw something that almost made her scream, a tall beautiful woman with long and unkempt raven black hair, strong features, an hour-glass frame that was both powerful and alluring, and wearing a traditional black shihakusho under a full set of pure white Edo-era armor and boots appeared behind Kenshin with her hand resting on Kenshin's shoulder. She found herself asking the spirit of her zanpaktou, _who is that with Kenshin and how can he stand to be that close to him with Kenshin exerting this much spiritual pressure?_

She heard Haineko answer her in his usual disinterested tone inside her thoughts, _**that is Tensuga, the Heaven's Fang and Empress of the Tenryuu. She is the mother of the three that rule the Tenryuu and the entirety of the spirit realm. The fact that she chose Kenshin to be her samurai partner means that Kenshin is meant to live a life in the shadows, but will shine as a light in the darkness. The two of them fight as one, each trusting the other in what seems to be a perfect samurai-zanpaktou relationship. Even Byakuya and Senbonzakura cannot claim to have that strong of a bond.**_

Kenshin spoke, his voice almost sounding like a dragon's growl that rattled the very marrow of her bones, "Do you see now? Do you hear it?"

Rangiku asked still breathless from the weight of the reiatsu Kenshin was exerting, "Hear what?"

Kenshin said as he stepped into a long and low stance with his zanpaktou in a reverse grip behind him, his left arm off to his side at a slight angle, his feet in a wider version of the classic L-stance, "Our resolve."

She asked, "Resolve?"

Kenshin nodded as he pulled his reiatsu back until it was no longer visible, yet the insane pressure it was exerting still remained, "Yes. You cannot do anything without resolve. My sensei in the samurai arts told me when he first started training me as a little boy that all he could do was to teach me how to be ready. When I asked him 'ready for what', his reply was 'ready to learn'. I didn't understand what he meant until the day I released Tensuga. I had thought as Byakuya and so many other samurai think: that if I keep pushing myself harder and harder that I would break through the block that happens when we try to release for the first time.

"You see, Urahara-sensei was teaching me how to be ready to learn from Tensuga because the only ones that can teach us about our zanpaktou are our zanpaktou. That day Tensuga taught me his resolve that has since become mine as well as his: Master my fear, for if I fear, my blade will become dull. When I evade, none will not harm me. When I attack, none shall stand before me. When I protect someone, no harm will befall them."

"That is why our reiatsu feels like it's going to cut through you at a moment's notice, because its condition is a direct reflection of our resolve. Do you understand now why you were unable to cut me?"

Rangiku closed her eyes and turned her thoughts inwards to her spiritual plane, the home of Haineko. In a moment she found herself standing before Haineko where he was lounging on his pillows in the middle of a large temple lit with oil lamps. The massive ash gray with black striped tiger and over-sized incisors strongly resembled the saber-tooth tigers of the ice age except for the fact that Haineko stood about six feet tall at his shoulder. She looked up at him and said, "We need to talk."

Haineko moved his head a little and cracked open an eye as he answered her in her thoughts, _**what about? Oh wait, let me guess: you finally have gone against someone who won't treat you as if you are made of glass like that loser Byakuya Kuchiki and you are scared. Well you should be, Kenshin Shihoin represents what all samurai could become if they would set aside their arrogance and listen…**_

* * *

 **A/N: Another chapter down and one step closer to finishing this introduction arc.**

 **The Q & A Chapters will follow each arc to answer any questions that were not answered in the course of the chapters in the individual story arcs. So if you have questions, please PM me or post your questions in reviews of individual chapters.**

 **Again, thanks for reading!**


	6. The Exams Begin

**A/N: Chapter six is up. This one's a bit shorter than the others, but hopefully you readers will enjoy it all the same.**

 **1\. Speech/Thoughts Key:**

 **"Wait, you don't have a plan?! Why am I not surprised?"** \- **Zanpaktou Spirit/Biiju/Summoned Creature Speech**

 _ **Why should you try to make a plan? That's never worked for you before. -**_ **Zanpaktou Spirit/Biiju/Summoned Creature Thoughts**

"Why can't I play with the big shiny sword? It's so pretty." - Human Speech.

 _Why is everyone around me a psychopath? Oh... that's right I am a shinobi now and we are all crazy._ \- Human Thoughts

 **2\. Still have no proprietary rights to Bleach, Naruto, Naruto Shippuuden, or Rurouni Kenshin**

* * *

 **The Exams Begin**

* * *

 **One Month Later**

 **Soi Fon**

Soi Fon woke up well before the sun began to lighten the color of the eastern sky, knowing that something was off. As she quickly and quietly got dressed as the sun continued its unstoppable climb into the eastern sky, Soi Fon contemplated what could make her feel like something was wrong and the fact that she could not figure it out made her all the more anxious to check on Kenshin-sama. In that moment she froze as the realization hit her: Kenshin-sama was beginning the Chuunin Exams today and she wasn't going to be there to protect him in the Forest of Death, as Training Ground Forty-Four was called, during the second part of the exams. It was true that the other female samurai from her team, Rangiku Matsumoto had greatly improved over the last month that they had been training, but it wasn't the same as if Soi Fon was going with him because Rangiku was still unable to keep up with Kenshin-sama. And how could she protect Kenshin-sama if she was unable to keep up with him? It was a question she had been posing to Kenshin-sama since it was announced that Rangiku and not Soi Fon would be teamed with Asuma and Kenshin-sama as well as Kakashi from team seven for the Chuunin Exams. Why couldn't they understand that she wanted to protect Kenshin-sama as he had protected her all those years ago?

When Soi Fon reached the main room of the head family's home she saw that the floor tile of the main room had been lifted to reveal the trap door that hid the ladder that went down to the training room under the clan compound. The fact that the floor panel was moved aside meant that someone was down in the training room at the moment and she knew just who it was. Soi Fon moved over to the door, grabbed the ring that served as both the handle and a dead bolt lock and turned it. The minute that the dead bolt disengaged, Soi Fon had to jump back as the door swung outward almost too fast for her to react to, forced open by the force of the reiatsu it had previously been containing.

It was Kenshin-sama's reiatsu. She made the leap down the hatch without a moment's hesitation, pulling the door shut behind her as she fell. Soi Fon then used shunpo to land softly on the ground. The weight of the reiatsu being released made it hard for her to breathe or even stand up.

When she looked up, Soi Fon froze at what she saw. Kenshin was standing across from the spirit of his zanpaktou with his left arm raised above his head, Tensuga held by the streamer, the blade hanging down the back of his arm and body.

The spirit of Tensuga smiled at Kenshin, **"So are you going to show me that you have mastered the Dragon's Tail form?"**

Soi Fon watched as Kenshin smiled back, "No, I am not."

Tensuga arched an eyebrow, **"No?"**

Kenshin chuckled, "I am going to show you that I have mastered all of your shikai forms."

Tensuga barked out a laugh, **"Good, now show me."**

Soi Fon watched as Kenshin rotated his wrist and started spinning Tensuga overhead so quickly that the sword appeared to be a flat disc over Kenshin's head, the sound that the sword made as its spun through the air was akin to the howling that hurricane force winds would create. Kenshin spun the sword overhead for a few more moments then brought his left arm around behind his head and brought his arm forward in a violent sidearm throwing motion that sent his sword ripping through the air so fast that it was almost blurred as it moved in a wide arc to attack the spirit form of Tensuga standing across from Kenshin.

Tensuga brought her own sword up to deflect the blow and the blades met with the screeching sound of metal grinding against metal. Soi Fon was nearly blown off her feet by the shockwave that come from the two blades meeting, but she didn't have time to contemplate what that shockwave meant as she watched Kenshin immediately spun to his right bringing his left arm around in a horizontal slashing motion as he spun, causing the sword to change directions, go around Kenshin in a wide arc and attack Tensuga from the other side. Again the sword moved almost too fast for her to see. Again the two blades met with the sound of metal contacting metal. Again a shockwave blasted outward from the contact of the swords. Soi Fon felt her breath catch as she watched as Kenshin flowed through his zanpaktou form: spinning in midair, flipping, jumping, spinning on the balls of his feet, and all the while, keeping his sword flying through the air at the end of the streamer and attacking Tensuga from what seemed impossible angles. Each time Kenshin's blade connected with Tensuga's, a shockwave exploded outward, causing the landscape around the two of them to change each time their blades came together.

She watched as Kenshin's sword connected with Tensuga's from overhead. As soon as the two swords met, Kenshin used shunpo to catch the hilt of his sword in a reverse grip with his left hand while putting himself into a horizontal flip. Just before Kenshin started his spin he smiled, "Tensho."

As he said that, Kenshin threw himself into the promised horizontal flip, right shoulder over left, causing his blade to slash downward, releasing a white arc of highly condensed reiatsu that forced Tensuga to use shunpo to get out of the way before she was cut in half. When Kenshin landed, Soi Fon watched as he adopted the same stance he had used when he was first sparring with Rangiku: a long and low 'L'-shape stance with his sword held in a reverse grip in his left hand with his arm at a slight angle and the blade behind his back, a reiatsu-steel wakazashi in his right hand. He smiled at Tensuga and spoke, "Now for the 'Fang and Claw' form."

Tensuga smiled, **"Let's begin."**

With that Soi Fon watched as Kenshin and Tensuga disappeared in shunpo and reappeared, their blades clashing with great force. Over the next hour, Soi Fon watched as Kenshin and Tensuga flowed through their forms in what had gone from a sparring match to a dance of two master swordsmen. Both were using movements that she had never seen before, attacking with their swords held in a reverse grip then without missing a single beat, reversing the direction of their attacks so quickly that she could barely keep up with their movements. Even scarier, occasionally the two of them were firing that attack that Kenshin had used earlier, Tensho (Heavenly Slash), Kenshin's always the white light of his reiatsu and Tensuga's the impenetrable black reiatsu edged with the same white light as Kenshin's reiatsu.

Then she watched as Kenshin used shunpo to avoid a black Tensho fired by Tensuga and reappear in midair some hundred feet off the ground. As she watched, Kenshin drew a kunai from its sheathe on the bandoleer tied around his left thigh and throw it at Tensuga. She watched as the kunai seemed to flash across the distance between the two but just before it reached Tensuga, she heard Kenshin saw in an almost whisper, "Tenko (Heavenly Blast)."

Her breath caught in her chest as she watched as a torrent of reiatsu similar to Tensho but more compressed leapt from the cutting edge of the kunai straight at Tensuga, who smiled as she watched the miniature blast of reiatsu approach and then at the last moment, she used shunpo to avoid being hit by the blast and the kunai. The instant Tensuga appeared out of shunpo, she spun around and brought her sword up to catch Kenshin's wakazashi blade as he rested the otachi against her throat, both of them smiling. Tensuga praised Kenshin, **"Well done. Your timing with that attack was perfect."**

Soi Fon watched until Kenshin and Tensuga stopped sparring another hour later and bowed to each other as a student and master would, Tensuga seemed to dissolve into black smoke that was sucked in by the blade of Kenshin's sword. Before she completely disappeared, Tensuga said, **"Well done Kenshin, you have indeed mastered all of my shikai forms. The next time we train together like this, we will be training for bankai."**

With that, the spirit of Tensuga disappeared into the blade of the sword. Kenshin then swung the sword over his head, placed the blade against bandoleer and held it there until the streamer coming off of the hilt stretched itself to engulf the entire length of the blade and secured it to Kenshin's back.

As he let go of his sword, Kenshin looked at her with a look that she had never seen directed at her before, a look of brotherly affection towards her. Kenshin gave her a smile and said, "So did you enjoy the show, Soi-neechan?"

Soi Fon knelt and said as she directed her gaze downward, "Yes, Kenshin-sama. Your stren-"

She was cut off as Kenshin knelt down in front of her and put one hand on her shoulder, the other under her chin, gently lifting her head to the point where she didn't have a choice but to look him in the eye. Soi Fon felt a jolt run through her as she locked eyes with him and found warmth there that she had only seen in his eyes when the two of them were alone like this and he treated her not as a subordinate, but as an older brother would treat a little sister, "I don't care about all that formal crap. Never have, not between you and me. I care about what you think, not just on what you saw today, but on many other subjects. I see you as a member of my family, an equal, a sister even."

Soi Fon was surprised, not just by Kenshin's actions, but by his words, "What do you mean?"

Kenshin gave her a small smile that sent another jolt through her and caused her face to become warm, "When we're like this, just you and me, drop the '-sama'. Just let us be ourselves."

Soi Fon nodded, "Okay."

Kenshin chuckled, "Good. Now that that is settled, why don't we go back upstairs?"…

* * *

 **A Couple of Hours Later**

 **Kenshin**

Kenshin was standing under the tree outside of the front door of the academy along with Kakashi while they waited for Rangiku and Asuma to show up. Kakashi asked from where he was sitting on the ground with Rin resting against his back, "Where are those two? We agreed yesterday that we would meet here in front of the academy at ten, right?"

Kenshin, who was leaning against the trunk of the tree with the 'sheathed' Tensuga leaning against the tree next to him, nodded, "Yes we did and it's not quite ten so be patient."

Kakashi sighed, "Sorry, just want to get these exams started. Little nervous I guess."

Rin chuckled, "Any more nervous than when you asked me two months ago?"

Kakashi's face immediately turned red as he said, "No actually. I am less nervous about these exams than I was about asking you out, Rin-chan."

Rin got up on her knees and leaned against Kakashi's back so that she could press her developing bust against his back and kiss him on the cheek, "Well, aren't you sweet."

Kakashi brought a hand up and caressed Rin's cheek for a moment, "Thank you for the courage Rin-chan."

Soi Fon, who was sitting on the ground on the other side of Kenshin, made a gagging sound, "If the two of you were any sweeter I think that both of you would need insulin shots from Tsunade-sama."

Kenshin chuckled and was about to rib Kakashi a little more when he saw Rangiku and Asuma approaching from his left, "Here they come."

Kakashi, Rin, and Soi Fon all stood up, Kenshin slung the bandoleer and Tensuga over his head to where the bandoleer in its usual place upon his person, and Kakashi moved even with Kenshin.

When Rangiku and Asuma reached them, Kakashi said in an annoyed voice, "Where have the two of you been?"

Rangiku said breathlessly as if they had run all the way from wherever they had been, "Sorry Kakashi. A certain someone was a little busy saying a long goodbye to his girlfriend."

Asuma chuckled, "Sorry 'bout that. Are we ready to go?"

Kakashi nodded, "Just about," he then turned to Rin, enfolding her in a tight embrace, "See you in a few days, Rin-chan."

Rin said as the two of them stepped back from the embrace, "You better or I will find you and kick your ass all the way back from wherever the hell you are."…

Soi Fon watched as Rin and Kakashi had embraced wishing that she could do the same with Kenshin, but he had made it clear that he saw her as a sibling, not a romantic interest, instead she looked over at him and saw him give her the same half smile that he had given her in the training room earlier that morning. She locked eyes with him and said, "Be safe, Kenshin-sama."

The smile that Kenshin had given her exploded into his full-blown mischievous grin, "Don't worry Soi Fon, I will do my best to stay out of trouble."

For some reason, maybe it was the 'I'm about to do something that will drive you crazy' smile that he had on, she didn't fully believe him and wished for the umpteenth time since she woke up that morning that she was going into the exams with him instead of Rangiku. Soi Fon heaved a sigh as she and Rin watched Kenshin, Kakashi, and the others walk off towards the school building. The two of them watched until the four of them disappeared inside the building. Movement to her right got her attention, she turned to see Rin looking at her critically, "So how long have you seen Kenshin as a sibling instead of in a non-bodyguard way?"

Soi Fon looked back at her flatly, "I don't know what you mean."

Rin threw her arm over Soi Fon's shoulders, "Oh come on Soi Fon, it was _so_ obvious to me that you wanted to do more than just tell him to 'be safe'. So, how about we discuss it over a couple bowls of Ichiraku Ramen, your treat?"…

* * *

 **A Few Minutes Later**

 **Kenshin**

Kenshin, Kakashi, Rangiku, and Asuma made their way through the school building towards where the other entrants were waiting for the exams to begin. As they passed through the halls, Kenshin couldn't help but feel excited about the challenges that the exams represented. His musings were cut short as he and his team emerged from one hallway into what was one of the three gymnasiums that were part of the academy.

It wasn't the gym itself that cut his musings short, with it's columns that lined the long sides of the rectangular gym but the figure that stood across the width of the gym from them. He stood a couple inches taller than Kenshin with a thin frame that was taut with lean muscle enshroud in the standard samurai shihakusho, a white hilted and sheathed zanpaktou at his left hip with a rectangular guard that was empty inside of the rectangular frame save for four support bars that separated the open space into four equal air gaps around the blade, white fingerless samurai gauntlets encased his hands from middle fingers to just above his wrists, and white ornaments on the left side of his head to keep his hair out of his face. The young man had long, angular features that some girls found attractive, black eyes, a pale yet not unhealthy complexion, and a permanently fixed scowl that showed how much more superior that he found himself to be than everyone around him. The young man's name was Byakuya Kuchiki, he was the rookie of the year for the class two classes ahead of Kenshin, and Kenshin thought that he was a total ass to the point that he not only had his head up there, but his shoulders and waist too.

Kenshin hated the look that Byakuya was giving him and his team, a look of disdain and condescension, "Turn back," he said in a disinterested and superior tone, "Turn back and try again next year. The exams are not for rookies."

Kenshin was about to tell Kuchiki where he could shove that 'holier than though' attitude when Rangiku stepped forward to stand next to him, a challenge in her voice, "Says who, the heir of the Kuchiki clan? You are not the Hokage, nor are you our sensei."

Byakuya seemed taken aback by Rangiku's forwardness. He narrowed his eyes at her, "You would do well to keep quiet Rangiku."

Rangiku arched an eyebrow, "Oh, and why is that, Byakuya- _kun_?"

She spat out the formality at the end of Byakuya's name as a point of emphasis.

Kenshin watched as Byakuya's hand unconsciously wrapped around the sheath of his zanpaktou and his voice darkened, "Watch your tone, Matsumoto. Your family is lucky that my family agreed to our marriage in the first place."

It was Rangiku's turn to narrow her eyes as she scoffed at him, "Lucky? How is being married to someone who believes that a woman should be seen and not heard lucky? I want to be with someone who sees me as a partner in life, not a possession to be discarded when they grow tired or bored of me."…

* * *

 **Byakuya**

Byakuya was already surprised by the fact that Rangiku had stood up to him with such fervor. He was upset as well, his left hand gripping the throat of Senbonzakura's sheath so tightly that his knuckles were turning white. How dare she speak to him this way, as if he was of common samurai lineage such as herself instead of from the most powerful clan of samurai in the village, nay the country? It was an unforgivable attack on his clan's honor and required swift action. Yet when she passed him close enough for him to catch the scent of her lavender perfume, he could not bring himself to do anything. He watched as the rest of her team passed him while giving him a wide berth, all except the Shihoin brat. Byakuya saw out of the corner of his eye that Kenshin had stopped when he drew even with Byakuya.

He was so ready for the Shihoin brat to attack him that he was completely caught off guard when he said, "You know, she is a lot smarter than you give her credit for. Rangiku is also a lot stronger than you think. She may never be able to match you in raw power, but she will make up for it with creativity and a perception that can see better than my clan's Tengan sometimes. You say that her family is lucky that she gets to marry so far above their station in marrying you. I think you have it backwards: You should feel lucky in getting to marry someone who is not only your match for intelligence, but also for fighting spirit."

Byakuya scoffed at the idea, "Nonsense. The Matsumoto clan is little better than street rabble. In fact the only reason my father agreed to the marriage is that Rangiku's father saved his life once or we would have been looking elsewhere for a perspective match for me."

Byakuya looked at the brat out of the corner of his eye as the younger man shook his head and closed his eyes, "Typical Kuchiki: Thinking that you are the best, that the world owes you everything. You are so busy looking at how pathetic a person's lineage that you fail to see the beauty of the person underneath all of the dirt that you think you see."

With that the brat opened his eyes and started to walk away from Byakuya but stopped so that Byakuya had to turn his head to see the Shihoin brat over his shoulder. Kenshin spoke again, "I will leave you with this one last bit: Rangiku doesn't back down from anything. When we were training together, she constantly told me to push her harder, and when I went into what my friend Kakashi calls 'scary samurai mode' Rangiku didn't hesitate to fight. Think about that and ask yourself this question: if she is willing to go through all of that just to be strong enough to go into these exams, how far is she willing to go to protect her family and is that someone you want at your side? I know that if I were in your shoes she is exactly the kind of person I would want at my side."

With that, the brat disappeared around the corner in the hallway that had been behind Byakuya in a hurry to catch up with his teammates, leaving Byakuya to consider his words as he stood there for a few more moments…

* * *

 **Kenshin**

Kenshin caught up with the rest of his team outside of the double doors that led into the designated waiting area for all of the genin and enlisted ninja and samurai that were gathered for the Chuunin Exams. The other three were gathered together outside the doors obviously waiting for him to show. As he approached, Kakashi turned towards him and inquired, "What kept you?"

Kenshin shrugged his shoulders at his friend and said, "I had a few words to share with Byakuya in private. Anyways, why are we standing outside and not waiting inside?"

Rangiku rolled her eyes at him and said, "We're out here waiting for you and now that you're here we can go inside."

Kenshin chuckled, "Well then, let's go."

Kenshin watched as Kakashi pushed the door open and all four of them went inside. The scene that greeted Kenshin and his team was surprising only in the number of people that were there. A quick survey of the room showed Kenshin that there were at least sixty teams total representing all of the different hidden villages in the world. All of them were in a large room that was devoid of decorations save for a few couches, benches, and chairs scattered around the room, but most of the candidates seemed more interested in leaning against the walls or lounging on the floor.

As Kenshin swept the other entrants, one in particular caught his eye: A young man maybe three years older than Kenshin and Kakashi with ash gray skin, black hair that stood up at all angles, black eyes that were mere pinpricks below pencil thin eyebrows, a tall nose that looked as if it had been broken a time or two, and he stood at least four inches taller than Kenshin with a broad frame that was thick with heavy muscle. He was wearing shades-of-gray camouflaged pants, black shinobi boots, black arm sleeves that went from his wrist to elbows, a wide black bandoleer that went from right shoulder to his left hip, kunai holsters wrapped around his right thigh, bandages that covered him from the lower half of his face to bottom of his neck, and his head band worn at an angle around his head with the metal plate above his right ear. The symbol on his hitai-ate were four lines that each looked like an elongated 'S' and formed the corners of an imaginary square centered in the middle of the metal plate, the symbol for the Hidden Mist Village from Water Country, otherwise known as the 'Bloody Mist'. Attached to the bandoleer on his back was a massive sword that was single-edged with a blade that was at least two feet wide, a hole cut out near the tip and a divot cut out of the cutting edge near the cross shaped guard that was reminiscent of a broadsword's guard, and an almost three handed hilt that looked like half of it could be disconnected by unscrewing it from the rest of the hilt and the blade. Sword Dude, as Kenshin dubbed him, moved with the deadly precision of an expert swordsman: fluid movements, each with a purpose and each conveying the promise of violence.

His two teammates seemed to belong with the other candidates as much as Sword Dude did, which was not at all. The other two wore similar outfits to Sword Dude but with their shirts on, which were form fitting and black, no massive sword attached to their backs, but with an extra pair of kunai holsters on each of their thighs and attached to their belts, the same kind of bandages covering the lower half of their faces, and their hitai-ates worn straight forward and pulled low to hood their eyes. The two of them were of similar enough physical stature and features that Kenshin figured that the two of them were brothers, more than likely twins, with their shoulder blade-length black hair, narrow black eyes, hooked noses, and wolf-like frames taut with lean muscle. Kenshin dubbed them Misty One and Misty Two and they seemed to be about a year or so younger than Sword Dude.

Kenshin got the distinct impression that the three of them were not there in the room with all of the other candidates as candidates for the Chuunin Exams. He gave a little hand signal that he knew that Kakashi would pick up on and a moment later, Kakashi was at his side speaking quietly enough so that Asuma and Rangiku couldn't hear him, "What's up Kenshin?"

Kenshin turned his whole body to face Kakashi and said in an equally quiet voice, "Don't glance at them directly but over my right shoulder are three shinobi from the Bloody Mist Village and they don't seem like candidates at all. I get the feeling their here for another reason completely. I dubbed them Sword Dude, Misty One, and Misty Two. You see them?"

Kakashi blinked his eyelids once showing that he did see them, "We'll have to keep track of them and see what their up to."

Kenshin gave a hand gesture that team seven had come up with that meant 'I agree'. It was only one of about a couple hundred gestures that their team had come up with while training with Minato-sensei for silent communication on top of all of the standard hand signs used by all Konoha shinobi, most of them were natural body movements or gestures that were already second nature to any natural human being, such as blinking or running a hand through their hair, but to team seven, they meant so much more.

The value of the system had been proven on the first B-rank mission that the team had had three months ago where they had had to infiltrate a sleepy little village to see if the local bandits that always seemed to know when the village had new supplies come in, even thought the villagers were smuggling them in by various means, and taking them as a 'protection tax'. When they heard what was occurring, the team had been directed to don civilian clothes and blend in with the villagers, so to stay in contact, team seven had resorted to their private form of silent communication that Kenshin and Kakashi just used to find the bandit's spies in the village, expose them, and take down the bandits.

Kenshin and Kakashi turned away and rejoined Rangiku and Asuma, who had been joined by Tier and her team, as if nothing had happened and fell into the conversation with most of the rest of the candidates from Konoha as they waited for the proctor for the first exam to show up. They didn't have long to wait as the double doors at the far end of the room were flung open with great force and a pair of Chuunin stood at the doorway. Both were wearing a gray uniform that all Chuunin proctors of the exams wore. The one on the left spoke in a loud voice that carried through the entire room, "All candidates come this way and when you enter the room, find the placards that have your names on them and sit down. The proctor will introduce himself and describe to you the first exam."

Kenshin looked at Kakashi and gave his best friend a wolfish grin, "Let's go."…


	7. The Second Exam: The Forest of Death

**A/N: Here's the next chapter and we finally visit the Forest of Death... Yay!**

 **1\. (Added 6/6/2015) Some editing has occurred to correct mistakes pointed out to me by a friend, let's see if you can spot them. ;P**

 **2\. Speech/Thoughts Key:**

 **"Here we go again with you and your hair-brained schemes." - Zanpaktou Spirit/Biiju/Summoned Creature Speech**

 **_So...how exactly are you going to get out of this one?_ \- Zanpaktou Spirit/Biiju/Summoned Creature Thoughts**

"Well, that was exciting... not." - Human Speech

 _Wait, where are my clothes? How the hell did I lose my clothes?_ \- Human Thoughts

 **2\. Still nowhere near lucky enough to own the rights to Bleach, Naruto, Naruto Shippuuden, or Rurouni Kenshin... On with the story!**

* * *

 **The Second Exam: The Forest of Death**

* * *

 **A Few Hours Later**

 **Kenshin**

Kenshin and his team had passed the first exam, if you could call being given a bogus written test that any samurai or shinobi with any skill and an understanding of the basics could pass and told that if they were caught cheating five times individually that the team would be disqualified, an exam. In other words: cheat as much as you like, just don't get caught doing it. Kenshin and his team had watched the field of candidates go from sixty teams down to forty, and many of those that failed the first test had failed the final question: How much are you willing to risk to achieve victory?

Now Kenshin and his team, along with the other thirty-nine teams were standing outside of Training Ground Fourteen, better known as 'The Forest of Death' waiting for their proctor to tell them about the exam.

They had been waiting over an hour when their proctor arrived and as soon as Kenshin felt the proctor's reiatsu, his back had been to where the proctor had shown up, he said, "Oh, great. Well this is going to be fun, not."

Kakashi turned towards him, "What are you…" then he saw who Kenshin had turned to look at, "isn't that-?"

Kenshin nodded, "Yes it is. Well, this is going to be interesting."

Kenshin saw Kakashi looking at him, "How so?"

Kenshin answered, "It will be interesting to see how many of these candidates will pass out under the weight of my father's reiatsu if he gets just the smallest bit excited about even the prospect of fighting someone here before releasing us into the forest."…

* * *

 **Rangiku**

Rangiku turned to look at who Kenshin was talking about and froze. The man towered over everyone there, standing only about four inches shy of seven feet with a broad frame with a wolf-like build crisscrossed with scars from countless battles, the same wolfish features as Kenshin except that Kenshin didn't have the same hooked nose as his father nor the scar that seemed to bisect the right half of Kenpachi-sama's face from scalp to chin or the coal black eyes that held a deadly glimmer, shoulder-length black hair that had been styled into long spikes that gave his head an almost corn row appearance as well as appearing as if a spiked crown had been placed on the back of his head, and tan skin. He was wearing the formal samurai shihakusho with the Shihoin crest embroidered on the left breast of the kimono under the traditional white haori (over-cloak) of a captain in the samurai ranks of Konoha that seemed to have had its sleeves ripped off and the symbol of Konoha embroidered above the Shihoin Crest and both were centered in a black diamond centered in the middle of his upper back, a strange eye patch covered his right eye, and his zanpaktou slid through his obi at his left hip. Kenpachi's zanpaktou was of a length equivalent to a normal person's otachi but on him, it matched a nadochi in length with a sheathe that was completely wrapped with bandages from throat to end, a similarly wrapped hilt that looked to be plain wood under the bandages with a length of bandage hanging off of the pommel like Kenshin's Tensuga, a non-traditional guard that appeared as an almost gold-colored multisided diamond devoid of any ornate emblems or shape, and, according to Kenshin, when the blade was drawn, one could see the fact that it had an uneven serrated edge as if from extensive use, bohai (fuller or blood channel) that stretched the length of the blade, and was a uniform steel in color. Also according to Kenshin, its name was Nozarashi (Weather Beaten One) and was one of the Ryuudaimyo of the Tenryuu, as well as being a permanently release shikai. Rangiku moved to where she was standing behind Kenshin so that she was shielded from the killer intent and insane reiatsu radiating from him.

Rangiku looked from Kenshin to his father and instantly knew where her now-friend and long time object of a silly girl crush got his desire for and enjoyment of battle, as well as his insane reiatsu reserves. She watched as Kenpachi-sama's single visible eye roved the gathered candidates, a maniacal grin causing his features to take on a familiar predatory appearance that sent an all-too-familiar chill down Rangiku's spine, "So, it looks like more teams than expected made it through the first exam," his chuckle sounding more like a growl, "The forest will take care of that, however, there is an easier way. Anyone who is brave enough to challenge me and can defeat me will automatically be advanced to the final exam. Any takers?"

Before anyone could step forward, Rangiku watched as a woman wearing the samurai shihakusho and captain's haori of a Konoha Samurai Captain appeared out of shunpo next to the tower of a samurai. The captain stood a couple inches over five feet tall with hip-length raven black hair shot through with threads of gray that she kept in a single thick braid that went down the front of her body and stopped just short of her hips, the hair framed a beautiful round face with thin black eyebrows above midnight blue eyes that held the same glimmer as both Kenpachi-sama and Kenshin, the same tall nose as Kenshin, a petite hourglass frame that was both attractive and taut with lean muscle, and a smile that at the moment was gentle and promised friendship but Rangiku imagined that that smile could go from gentle to 'I'm going to kill you now' just as fast as Kenshin's could. Looped over her left shoulder was a red braided cord that was tied to metal loops, one at the throat of the nadochi-length sheathe and the other at the blade end of the black sheathe, the guard was rectangular with what looked like an infinity symbol cut out of it on either side of the blade, and had a pale green over dark red hilt with a bronze pommel.

Rangiku saw Kenshin noticeably relax as he recognized who the other captain was and she could hear laughter in his voice, "Well now we won't have to worry about bloodshed before we enter the forest."

Rangiku frowned as Kenshin turned towards her, "Why is that? Won't your dad just overrule the other captain and continue with his challenge?"

Kenshin chuckled, "Because there is only one samurai that my dad is truly afraid of: My mother, Retsu Shihoin and that is her. But, make no mistake, she is as vicious in battle as my father, if not more underhanded."

Rangiku gave him a confused look, "Underhanded, how is Retsu-sama underhanded in battle?"

Kenshin gave her a wolfish half-smile that she was beginning to think had been patented by the Shihoin Clan, "Because, she will use poisons, kunai, and any other tool she can think of to gain the upper hand in a fight so that she can win. Also, don't forget that she works at the hospital so she knows her way around the human body."

Rangiku looked back at Retsu-taichou as she approached her husband with a sweet if somewhat psychotic smile on her face and swallowed hard before speaking to Kenshin again, "Now I see where you get it from. Are all of you Shihoin that deranged?"…

* * *

 **Tier**

Tier, whose team was standing nearby heard the conversation and Rangiku's question about the Shihoin Clan's sanity and was about to respond when she saw Kenshin's half-smile exploded into a full-blown grin that caused a quickening of her own pulse and Rangiku to visibly shudder and heard him answer in that playfully-psychotic tone that he used with Tier and his other friends when he let his guard down, "Deranged: no, we're not deranged. Psychotic: yes, we all suffer from what my mom calls 'Acute Battle Psychosis', and it is quite enjoyable at times and can set in rather quickly whenever we face a strong opponent. Besides, it makes playing with shiny things like swords all the more fun. Ooh, and don't forget the explosions...explosions are always cool."

She chuckled softly at seeing Rangiku's reaction to Kenshin's response as the strawberry-blonde took an involuntary step back from Kenshin as if he had some sort of disease before she noticed Kakashi was doubled over, holding his sides, and shaking with held-in laughter. Tier had to smile at the girl's obvious discomfort at being so close to someone who just admitted that his family was a bunch of raging psychopaths. She saw that Rangiku was about to ask Kakashi what was so funny about Kenshin admitting that his entire family was psychotic, not that the girl probably hadn't realized that already, but there was something about hearing it out loud that seemed to Tier to have an unnerving impact on Rangiku, when Kenpachi-taichou waved his sheathed zanpaktou around over his head, again proving how psychotic Kenshin's family was, to get everyone's attention, "Oi, all of you runts come over here and I will tell you about how this exam will work."…

* * *

 **Kenshin**

Rangiku, Asuma, Kenshin, and Kakashi, who was still trying to recover from his silent laughter, as well as all of the other candidates made their way over to where Kenpachi-tousan and Retsu-kaasan were standing with a couple of the shinobi and samurai proctors from the first exam.

Kenshin's father started explaining the exam after all of the candidates were gathered around him and his wife, "So this exam is going to test how well how each of you and your team work together and how well you follow orders," with that he pulled two scrolls out of one of his shihakusho sleeves with his other hand, both scrolls fit easily into one of his hands as he held up two scrolls that were about five inches in height, half that in bulk, one of them was a dark blue in color with a white center stripe that featured the kanji character 'Ten' for Heaven, and the other was a light tan with a matching white center stripe that featured the kanji character 'Da' for Earth, "Each team will be given one of these scrolls before you enter the forest. Your objective is Two Fold: First: collect the opposite scroll so that you have both, in any way that you can; Second: report to the tower that is at the center of the forest with both scrolls, intact and unopened, within five days of entering the forest.

"If you open the scrolls before you have both and before you reach the tower, your entire team will be eliminated and escorted out of the forest by one of the proctors that will be watching your progress but will not interfere unless the a fore mentioned conditions are met.

"Now the proctors will go around and hand each team their gate assignment for entering the forest. You will receive your scrolls when you reach the gate. The exam will begin at the sound of the horn. Good luck."

With that, the proctors went around handing a member of each team a piece of parchment that had a number on it…

* * *

 **A Few Minutes Later**

 **Kenshin**

Kenshin and his team were waiting outside of gate forty-three to enter the Forest of Death. From where they were waiting, Kenshin and his team couldn't see any other teams from their vantage point which was taken into consideration when this training field had been designed back during the time of the first Hokage. As they were waiting, Kenshin noticed someone approaching out of the corner of his eye and it wasn't a proctor. He turned and gave the person approaching the smile that he saved just for her. He watched as Soi Fon approached where he and his team were waiting to enter the forest, the look in her eyes and her movements spoke to her being not just angry, but monumentally pissed off…

* * *

 **Soi Fon**

Retsu-sama had pulled Soi Fon aside after she had returned to the Shihoin complex with tears in her eyes after watching Kenshin go into the Chuunin Exams without her there to watch out for him and protect him. She had been furious about Soi Fon trying to hide her familiarity and sisterly affection towards Kenshin from her, that Soi Fon had violated her trust as the female head of the clan as well as the closest person that Soi Fon had had to a mother growing up because her own mother had died during her birth and her father had died in battle when she was only five. After she had admonished Soi Fon for not talking to her about how she felt about Kenshin, Retsu-sama had done something that Soi Fon hadn't expected: she had informed Soi Fon that she had been adopted into the head family, that she was now Kenshin's sister and would no longer be able to perform her duties as his bodyguard and that if she ever tried to hide anything from her again that there would be hell to pay. Soi Fon also remembered that Retsu-sama, no Retsu-kaasan, had said that she was taking over Soi Fon's training personally so that she would be ready for her future duties as the head of the Shihoin Clan security.

Now Soi Fon-Shihoin was slowly approaching Kenshin, anger coloring her emotions about being removed as his bodyguard only to be promoted to his sister, at his request no less, he asked as she stopped in front of him, "Soi-imoto (Little Sister Soi), what's wrong?"

Soi Fon shook her head looked up at him, her voice flat, "Nothing."

Kenshin inquired, an eyebrow rising in question, "Then why do you look like you went ten rounds with my mo-?"

 _CRACK!_ Soi Fon-Shihoin saw all of their friends' jaws drop in shock out of the corner of her eye as she finished slapping Kenshin across the face, effectively ending his question, her anger dictating her action and her following words, "SHE IS NOT JUST YOUR KAA-SAN ANYMORE, YOU BAKA! WHY THE HELL WOULD YOU NOT TELL ME THAT YOUR PARENTS HAD ADOPTED ME, EH?!"

She watched as he did something that she had not expected as he started laughing at her, not his usual small chuckle, no, a hearty full-blown laugh that just pissed her off even more as she continued her rant in a voice that seemed to be entirely too loud for her pixie-like body to produce, "WHAT IS SO TENRYUU-DAMNED FUNNY, NII-SAN?"

Kenshin at this point, along with everyone else standing there, was laughing so hard at her antics that he was having trouble breathing. She felt a tic develop over her left eye as she seriously considered trying out the technique that her zanpaktou, Sezumebachi (Hornet), had taught her the other day. She waited as his laughter finally died and he said, straightening himself back to his full height, "I felt it would be better for Kaa-san and Tou-san to tell you than me," he grinned at her, causing Rangiku to visibly shudder for a reason unknown to Soi Fon, "turns out, I was right. Oi, Kakashi, Asuma, pay up."

She stood stunned as she watched him catch two rolls of ryō that were tossed to him by the named individuals, causing her left eye to do a fair imitation of Asuma's 'Gai Eye Twitch.' Soi Fon asked incredulous as her reiatsu began to rise, "YOU BET ON MY REACTION?!"

Kenshin smiled at her and said, "It was only natural, imoto to bet on your reaction to me asking my parents to adopt you into the head family and make you my sister officially. Knowing how you react to things like this, I decided to place a friendly wager with Kakashi and Asuma, both assumed that you would be happy about it and thank me profusely, but I know you well enough to bet that his would be your reaction."

Soi Fon was about to say something more when she saw one of the proctors approaching holding a blue and white scroll. She stepped back from Kenshin and watched as he turned to face the proctor, his voice and face all business, "Yes, sir?"

The proctor handed the scroll to Kenshin and said, "Here is the scroll that your team will carry. Remember what Kenpachi-taichou said the rules were and time limit, and good luck. The exam will start in five minutes."

Soi Fon watched as Kenshin nodded, "Understood sir."

She watched as Kenshin looked down at the scroll and chuckled, "Huh, I guess they do favor us."

Kakashi asked, "Why do you say that?"

Kenshin showed him the scroll, "We start with the Heaven scroll."…

* * *

 **Sword Dude**

Waiting outside of another gate leading into the forest were Sword Dude, Misty One, and Misty Two, as the team from Hidden Village of the Bloody Mist had been dubbed by Kenshin Shihoin. In reality their names were Zabuza Momochi (Sword Dude), Omi Toranaga (Misty One), and Toda Toranaga (Misty Two). Zabuza was growing impatient to get started and find that Shihoin kid so that his team could execute their mission, which was to either to kill or kidnap the Shihoin brat. Zabuza preferred the first option, the very thought of killing sent his blood singing through his veins and an evil grin to cross his face.

Omi complained, "Bah, why did we get selected to take out one little samurai brat? He's not even strong enough to waste the time of the three of us, three ANBU jounin, and the Mizukage said that this was an S-rank mission. I think he needs to get his head examined."

Zabuza gave Omi a flat look that silenced any further complaints and said in his usual deep raspy voice, "Did you even bother to read the profile that they gave us on the kid? He is the strongest samurai of our generation so it would make since that our allies in the Rock and Cloud Villages would want him out of the way before they started their war against Konoha, Suna, and the Takigakure (Hidden Waterfall Village). Plus they want his body to see if they can discover the secrets of the Shihoin Clan's Tengan. Besides from the way he looked when we were waiting for the first exam, he might be worth killing."

Omi looked like he was about to say something else when one of the proctors approached and handed Zabuza a tan and white scroll with the kanji symbol for 'Earth' on it and said, "The exam will start in five minutes. Be ready," then the proctor stepped in close to Zabuza and said in a voice that only Zabuza could hear as he handed Zabuza another slip of paper with the scroll, "The Shihoin kid and his team are starting at gate forty-three, it is half way around the parameter to your left. It is marked on the map I gave you."

Zabuza nodded as he slid the scroll in the equipment pouch attached to the back of his belt and palmed the map. The proctor didn't say anything else as he walked away in the direction of another one of the gates to their right. Zabuza smiled, "Let the hunt begin."…

* * *

 **Five Minutes Later**

 **Kenshin**

A gong sounded and forty teams launched themselves into the forest. The forest was special in that the trees were over three hundred feet tall and close to seventy-five feet across at their base. Besides the fact that the size and seemingly sameness of the trees and terrain was disorienting by itself, the forest was also home to many dangerous animals, all of which were several times their normal size. This led to tigers that stood six feet tall at the shoulder, centipedes that were a dozen feet long, pythons that were some sixty feet in length and that was just the small ones, not to mention the dozens of other dangerous or poisonous species that inhabited the forest and loved killing unsuspecting shinobi who thought that they were strong enough to enter. This was the reason that whenever the Chuunin Exams were hosted by Konoha, they used this forest to weed out the ones who couldn't follow orders or were too weak for the finals. Some shinobi from other villages claimed that the forest gave the Konoha shinobi an unfair advantage, but the truth was that the forest didn't care who was a Konoha shinobi or samurai or not.

Into this forest Kenshin and his team went, not bounding along the tree tops like so many others, but calmly and quietly along the ground, moving as shadows within the shadows of the forest. Kenshin and the others had discussed it at length and had decided that the slow and steady approach would be best for both finding the earth scroll and for making their way to the tower in the center of the forest. As they moved through the forest, all of them could hear the sounds of miniature battles breaking out all around them in the distance as other teams clashed against one another in order to gain the opposite scroll from the one they started with.

Time passed slowly as they moved deeper into the forest with barely a spoken word between the four of them. A few hours had passed by when Kenshin and his team spilled out of a narrow path between the roots of a thick group of trees into a wide clearing that had a clear and swift moving creek running through it near the far and end of the clearing that was shaped like an oval. Kenshin held up one hand to signal everyone to stop as he scanned the clearing, looking for any signs of a trap or any danger at all.

Kenshin heard Kakashi move up next to him and saw out of the corner of his eye Kakashi using their team's sign language, _What's wrong?_

Kenshin placed his left hand on the ground and idly drew a few symbols that looked like a bunch of scribbles to outsiders but the motion of Kenshin's hand conveyed a clear message to Kakashi, _We are being stalked by another team. Three of them, our eleven o'clock, in the trees about three quarters of the way across the clearing._

Kakashi scratched the bottom of his chin with his first three fingers with the tip of his thumb resting under the corner of his jaw on the side of his neck, _Ambush?_

Kenshin nodded then said quiet enough for Rangiku and Asuma to hear him, "No sudden moves but we are being watched from our eleven o'clock about three quarters of the way across the clearing near the creek. I sense three of them. Be ready."…

* * *

 **Zabuza**

Zabuza and his team were waiting in the trees at the edge of the clearing with the creek running through it almost directly below them. They had been waiting in this area, which was on the most direct line from the gate that their target and his team started at to the center of the forest, for over three hours in the oppressive heat and humidity that seemed to have settled over the forest, causing every breath to become a chore of drinking the almost scalding air into their lungs. Of course, this was only a minor discomfort for Zabuza; he was so keyed up for the fight that he hardly noticed the overbearing atmosphere. The very thought of fighting someone as strong as this kid was supposed to be sent the familiar bloodlust scorching through his veins, though he had to be careful not to let it spill over or their prey would detect his team's presence.

Subtle movement in the boughs of the tree to his right caused Zabuza to look in that direction, Toda was trying to wipe sweat off of his face for the umpteenth time and said in his usual whiny voice that Zabuza found positively grating, "Where the fuck is this fucking kid? I wish he would hurry the fuck up and show the fuck up so that we can fucking kill him and end this fucking charade."

Zabuza looked back towards the far end of the clearing as movement at the edge of the trees caught his attention. As if on cue, their mark and his team appeared from under the trees at the far end of the clearing and began moving across the clearing slowly, as if they could sense that something was wrong. From what he had read about this kid they were supposed to kill, he probably picked up on Zabuza and his team's killer intent.

Zabuza chuckled softly as he said, "Get ready to attack."

Then he began weaving hand sings and felt his chakra gathering inside of him until he completed the sequence of hand signs and released his chakra into the air around him, "Suiton: Kirigakure no Jutsu." (Water Element: Hiding in Mist Technique)

Suddenly a heavy fog swallowed the clearing, making it difficult for their targets to see what was around them, but for Zabuza and his team, the mist was a welcome advantage, one that they would use to its full advantage. This technique was one that all Mist shinobi knew how to use whether their elemental affinity was water or not and even beyond that, it was a technique that their instructors at the academy and their jounin instructors used to train all young Mist shinobi in fighting without the use of one or more of their senses. It was part of the reason that Mist shinobi were feared the world over for their silent kill technique that utilized the mist to approach and kill their mark without anyone knowing they were there because when the mist lifted all that the others around their mark would see was a dead body. Zabuza nodded to his two teammates and watched as they silently dropped off of the branches of the tree that all three of them were standing in and moved to position themselves to cut off the only two escape routes that they could see, the paths at either end of the clearing. Zabuza settled in to wait for just a little bit longer until his target was within striking distance…

* * *

 **Rangiku**

Rangiku and the rest of the team had frozen dead in their tracks when the unnatural mist swallowed the clearing. She could feel the malice of whoever cast this jutsu in the mist and the sensation sent chills down her spine and set her on her guard. Rangiku heard a noise to her left that caused her to turn and rest her right hand on the hilt of Haineko, ready to draw and attack as she mentally reached down inside of herself and loosened the hold on her reiatsu so that she felt it flowing through her, a warm tingle that helped overcome the fear she was feeling. She was about to draw her sword when Asuma appeared out of the mist, ready to fight as well. Rangiku said, almost breathless with relief, "Asuma, thank goodness."

He looked at her, "Rangiku. This mist feels insane. There is some serious malice laced in it. Have you seen Kakashi and Kenshin?"

Rangiku shook her head, "No, have you?"

Asuma shook his head and was about to respond when they both caught movement out of the corner of one eye and simultaneously turned to face the perceived threat, only to relax as they saw Kakashi emerge from the mist, but that sense of relief changed to one of surprise when they saw that he was supporting Kenshin who had blood running down his face as if he'd been crying blood. Both of them saw how Kenshin looked weak, as if the mist was sapping his strength.

Asuma moved forward to help Kakashi with a just barely conscious Kenshin as Rangiku asked, "What happened? Was it an attack?"

Kakashi shook his head, "I don't know what happened with Kenshin, one minute he was walking at the front of our little group and as soon as the mist showed up, he gasped and dropped to a knee while clutching at his face. As for an attack, I think we are caught in the middle of one right now."

Asuma nodded as he took on more of Kenshin's weight from Kakashi, "I would have to agree with you Kakashi, this mist feels heavy and unnatural. Who do you think it is?"

Kakashi said, "It's probably the group of Mist shinobi that Kenshin pointed out to me when we were in the room waiting for the first exam to start. Kenshin said that they did not look like they were here for the exams themselves, so it could be them."

Just then, Kenshin levered himself off of Asuma and said in a slightly shaky voice, "Most likely."

Rangiku and the others looked at him as Asuma asked, "Are you alright, Kenshin?"

Kenshin, who now had rivulets of drying blood on his face, giving him an even fiercer appearance said in a voice that was growing stronger by the minute, "Yeah, I was stunned for a moment because this mist blinds my Tengan and if I try to use it, it causes damage to my eyes. Now that I've stopped using my Tengan, I'm feeling much better. The good thing is that I can still extend my senses outward, but that won't do us much good because this mist dampens everything and all I can sense more than a couple feet away from us is malice and bloodlust. It looks like we may be as close to blind as can be in this mist."

Rangiku watched as Kenshin turned back in the direction that they had been traveling through the clearing and said, "We should get moving."

Rangiku and the others were on guard as the four of them slowly made their way across the clearing. They were close to the stream when a cold and blood thirsty chuckle filled the air causing all four of them to freeze. The sound of the voice seemed to echo all around them, making it completely impossible for them to pinpoint its source.

She watched as Kenshin looked over his right shoulder back at the rest of the team, "Stay ready. The enemy is here."

She was about to ask what he meant when she saw a figure seem to appear out of the mist in front of Kenshin and swung a sword at him in a fast horizontal arc, meaning to cut him in two at about mid-chest. Rangiku was about to shout a warning when Kenshin responded so fast that she didn't see him turn to face the attack while at the same time pulling Tensuga from his back and bringing it down to block the attack that came from his right.

The two blades met with the sound of screeching metal. The fact that the sound seemed to be muted by the mist barely registered with Rangiku and the others as she watched in seemingly slow motion as the attacker's sword seemed to slice through Tensuga's blade about midway between the hilt and tip and an instant before the cutting edge of the attacker's massive sword reached Kenshin, he dropped to a knee below the arc of the sword only to meet a powerful roundhouse kick by his attacker that hit Kenshin square in the jaw, snapping Kenshin's head back and lifting him off the ground to send him ripping through the air to land somewhere at the far end of the clearing that they couldn't see but they definitely heard Kenshin hitting the base of a tree, hard. Rangiku's attention was snagged away from trying to see what happened to Kenshin by movement where Kenshin and his attacker had been standing. The movement was the upper half of Tensuga's blade falling through the air to hit the ground with a metallic _thud_.

Rangiku also noticed that Kenshin's attacker had disappeared back into the mist. She heard Kakashi say, "Quick, everyone get back to back."

The three of them moved to where they were back to back with each other, forming a triangle in the middle of the clearing, eyes roving the mist.

Everything was silent for a minute when they were startled by a voice that seemed to come from directly in front of Rangiku, "What the fuck? I thought this fucking brat was supposed to be fucking strong enough to fucking warrant using three fucking ANBU like us. One fucking attack and his fucking sword breaks and he fucking gets his fucking neck broken, what the fuck?"

The first voice that they had heard spoke again, the sound of it echoing around them in the mist, "Toda, shut up before you give away your position."

The second voice spoke again, still directly in front of Rangiku, just out of striking distance, "So fucking what, it's not like they can fucking know where my voice is coming from, is it? The mist you threw up throws all of our voices all over the place, right? So I can walk right up to fucking big-tit fire fucking crotch over there and fucking tell her that before I fucking gut her I am going to fucking tie her up and fuck her until she fucking begs for death and then I am going to fuck her some more, making sure that I abuse all three of her fuck holes with my huge fucking cock."

Rangiku couldn't stand it anymore so she said, "Will that be before or after I cut you dick off and shove it down your throat?"

The voice said, "What the fuck you say you fucking wh-?"

He never got to finish what he was going to say because Rangiku used shunpo to move from where she was standing to directly in front of him and kneed him in the balls and as he fell to his knees, Rangiku kicked him in the face, sending him sprawling, before using flash step to move back to her previous position.

Rangiku and her teammates heard the person hit the ground. The voice stayed quiet for a moment before saying, "What the fuck Zabuza? You fucking said that this fucking mist of yours would throw our voices and make it hard for these fucking brats to fucking find us. What the fuck happened?"

The first voice spoke again, sending chills down Rangiku's spine as it seemed to come from directly behind her, "I warned you that the mist only throws my voice, as it would yours if you had cast it, you fucking idiot."

The other person, who was probably on his feet by now said, "Idiot? I am going to fucking kill you when we're fucking done here, Zabuza. But first, I am going to fucking fuck fire crotch over there up."

Rangiku sensed the attack a moment before the same guy that she had kicked earlier emerged from the mist in front of her with a wicked kunai drawn and aimed at her stomach. Steel flashed as she drew Haineko in a reverse grip and brought it up to intercept the kunai. Steel met steel with a screech as her attacker's kunai slid along her blade.

Rangiku suddenly had the wind blasted out of her as her attacker quickly stepped in and drove a knee into her solar plexus. She didn't have a moment to recover as he drove an open palm into her jaw causing her mouth to shut with a _clack_ of her teeth clicking together. The blow also sent her staggering into her teammates who turned to catch her to keep her from falling. As Kakashi caught her, Asuma moved forward between her and the Mist shinobi that had been attacking her, his hands already flowing through a series of hand seals. As he completed the last hand seal, Asuma took a deep breath and said, "Katon: Haisekisho!" (Fire Element: Burning Ash).

Then he leaned forward and spewed a cloud of dark gray chakra-infused powder that engulfed Rangiku's attacker. Just before she could wonder what he was doing, Asuma clicked his teeth together, causing a spark that set the cloud of ash-like powder aflame. The clearing was suddenly filled with the blood-curdling scream of Rangiku's attacker and the sickening smell of burning flesh.

From their right they heard another voice, "Suiton: Suiryuudan no Jutsu!" (Water Element: Water Dragon Bullet Technique).

Then they heard a rumbling from the same direction as a wingless serpent-like dragon made entirely of water came out of the mist and straight at them too fast for them to dodge. Kakashi threw a kunai with an explosive tag attached to it at the water attack, shouting as he did so, "Move!"

Rangiku, Asuma, and Kakashi dove to one side as the tag ignited and exploded a moment later, causing the water to flash to steam, destroying the water dragon completely, and causing the mist to grow even thicker. The steam also had the added effect of dousing the fire that Asuma had set earlier with his burning ash technique.

All three of them were on edge waiting for the next attack from their opponents when there was a dragon's roar that became a constant growl as the air around them began to vibrate violently. Asuma looked at the others and said in a somewhat sarcastic voice, "Now what?"

* * *

 **A/N: I know, I know... I just had to get the Forest of Death in there somehow.**

 **As always, read, review, favorite, and follow!**

 **Thank you!**


	8. The Second Exam: Honor and Sacrifice

**A/N: Another Chapter up and another chapter closer to closing out the first arc in the story: The 'Introduction to How Everything is Different Arc'**

 **1\. Speech/Thoughts Key:**

 **"Do I really need to say it?" - Zanpaktou Spirit/Biiju/Summoned Creature Speech**

 ** _Now why the hell would you go and do something like that, huh?_ \- Zanpaktou Spirit/Biiju/Summoned Creature Thoughts**

"So, you do have a plan right... Oh dear tenryuu above, you don't have a plan at all, and no 'winging it' is not, I repeat 'not' a plan!" - Human Speech

 _Well, it is sort of a plan._ \- Human Thoughts

 **2\. Still unfortunate enough to NOT own Bleach, Naruto, Naruto Shippuuden, or Rurouni Kenshin**

* * *

 **The Second Exam: Honor and Sacrifice**

* * *

 **Kenshin**

When Sword Dude's blade had cut through Tensuga's blade, Kenshin had been shocked but had managed to duck under the wide swing with the hopes of landing a blow on his opponent that would give Kenshin time to figure out what the hell had happened. But instead of buying himself a few seconds, Kenshin had caught a roundhouse kick to the face that had sent him sailing through the air and into, literally, the base of one of the trees at the edge of the clearing. The force of the impact had caused the wood to dent under the force of his momentum and as soon as his head had connected with the side of the tree, his vision had burst with stars and then the blackness swallowed him.

When Kenshin had opened his eyes, he found himself staring up at the star-studded night-time sky that featured the crescent moon reigning over a high mountain range that nearly reached into the heavens and stretched from horizon to horizon. He caught movement to his right and had rolled upright to his feet to see who was there. The sight that greeted him was the ageless Tensuga standing there staring at him. Kenshin lay there for a minute, collecting his thoughts before he spoke, as he felt the cool mountain breeze blow across his face, causing his bangs to shift side to side. Kenshin then spoke, being careful to restrain the anger rising inside of him as he continued to count stars, "So, are you going to tell me what happened, Tensuga?"

Tensuga's shadow fell over him as she moved to stand next to him, **"Why should I tell you what happened? After all, it is my decision to grant or remove my power when I so choose, is it not?"**

Kenshin levered himself to his feet and turned to face Tensuga, "That is true, but haven't I done everything that you have asked?"

Tensuga smiled at him, **"Everything and more and that is the point."**

Kenshin's eyes narrowed, "So you allowing your blade to break was because I have done as you have asked?"

Tensuga rested one of her graceful hand on Kenshin's shoulder, **"Yes as well as because of my own arrogance and for that I am sorry."**

Kenshin frowned, "Arrogance, about what?"

Tensuga smiled at him like a mother to her son, **"You. When you first called upon me, I thought that I could teach you to fight with my more savage form, the otachi. After all, you have always been savage in battle. Always fighting with an edge and insight that few, even among your clan, could match, I thought that the otachi would be the perfect shape for my shikai to take to take full advantage of that,"** Tensuga moved over to the precipice to look out at the night covered mountains and stood there for a few moments in silence as if composing her thoughts before continuing, **"Because of that arrogance, I failed to see your true ability, failed to notice how comfortable you were fighting with two blades with an ease and grace that was at the same time both breathtaking and brutal. I was so busy teaching you how to understand and maintain the balance between our powers so that we would always stay balanced and so you wouldn't fall to madness and desire for power, that I failed to see that I was the one who upset the balance between us."**

Tensuga took a deep breath before continuing, **"You are unique, Kenshin, even amongst your clan. Even when you are in the thick of battle and the bloodlust is running high in your veins, you have always been able to fight with a clarity of mind and sight that not even your father could match and has always given you an edge in combat."**

Kenshin frowned as he moved to stand next to Tensuga on the precipice, "So again, why allow your blade to break?"

Tensuga smiled at Kenshin, **"So that you may fight the way you were meant to, the way you have been since the beginning."**

Kenshin looked at Tensuga, "You're speaking in riddles again, baa-chan."

Tensuga chuckled, **"Do you remember the story of the origins of your clan and their specific style of kendo?"**

Kenshin nodded, "Yes. It was some ten thousand years ago, before the written histories of most, during a time when the humans of the world still prayed to the Tenryuu in fear rather than laugh at my clan for holding onto the 'old ways', when the forbearer of my clan, and my namesake, was a poor samurai with nothing to his name but his nameless sword and the clothes on his back. It was during the time when you and the Tenryuu took a more active approach in your role as the deities of the world and would often walk amongst the humans. There were those who would erect expensive temples in what they claimed was the honor of whichever Tenryuu the temple was dedicated to, but more often than not it was so that the so called 'priests' could line their pockets with expensive and opulent rituals so that they could tell whoever was paying that that person now had the favor of the Tenryuu.

"You and the other Tenryuu had grown weary of man's constant fighting for power and land, their constant badgering of you to grant them power so that they may claim revenge against some supposed enemy of theirs for some perceived slight. You decreed that the Tenryuu would withdraw from the world, only keeping a watch from the spiritual plain, and that you were searching for someone who would be your representative on Earth, someone whose line would have a direct connection to the Tenryuu and whose line would receive a mighty gift from the Tenryuu so that all would know that they were your favored.

"Lords, ladies, and anyone who had any kind of riches to their name came from all across the world to the temple dedicated to you that sat right here in Fire Country. They made all kinds of sadistic and opulent offerings to try to show that they were the ones worthy to be your conduit to this world.

"It was on the night of the summer solstice that year, when one particularly rich warlord was attempting to prove his worth to you that on the peak of the mountain high above the very same temple in which said lord was trying to prove his worth, that a lone samurai whose clothes were ragged, thread-bare, and road-stained, his sword sheathe barely had any paint on it and the wrappings on the hilt were worn to the point of almost not being there at all climbed up as high as he could on a precipice much like this one, placed his sword on a boulder that was about waist-high, knelt down in front of the boulder, and said with his head bowed as the moon rose before him, "Tensuga-sama, Empress of the Tenryuu, I come before you with nothing but my sword and my name, Kenshin Himura. I cannot offer you gold or other sacrifices. The only thing that I can offer is my sword and my sacred honor as a man and a samurai."

"He also thanked you for getting him through the terrible battle that he had fought in between two rival lords, both vying for the love of one woman. It was while he was thanking you for his survival that you appeared before him."

Tensuga nodded, **"Your namesake was an honorable man and when I bestowed the Tengan and agreed to become the spirit of his zanpaktou, he remained true to his word throughout the rest of his life. I am happy to see that his teachings have been passed down through the generations. Now tell me what you know of the Hiten Mitsurugi-ryu."**

Kenshin looked at Tensuga, "The Flying Heaven Honorable Sword Style is largely a battojutsu style of kendo that pits one against many. The philosophy is that the practitioner must protect those around him; he is allowed to use the lethal force of the Hiten Mitsurugi to protect the people. The style's principles are based on utilizing godlike speed that goes beyond shunpo, shinsoku, and precision to deal powerful blows that usually bring down foes with one shot.

"The swordsman must also be able to read techniques at an amazing pace as well as interpret emotions as a form of clairvoyance in order to accurately predict what an opponent will do. In order to accomplish this part, you bestowed the Tengan upon my clan.

"Combining those two elements with shinsoku and precision strikes allows the wielder to fight many opponents single handedly and protect those important to him. There are seven kata within the Hiten Mitsurugi: Ka (Fire), Kaze (Wind), Mizu (Water), Rai (Lightning), Da (Earth), Getsu (Moon), and Shiro (Blank). Each of the tenryuu teach their samurai to use the form that goes along with the element that they are the stewards of, and we learn the Shiro Kata (Blank Form) as a basis for the lessons that our tenryuu partners will teach us. This is also the basis for our belief that there are two types of battles that we fight: The first to protect the village and accomplish the mission; The second to protect those that are precious to us," he paused for a moment before inquiring, "So why bring up the Hiten Mitsurugi?"

He watched as Tensuga gave him a predatory smile, **"Because you are the only one who can use the Ryuu** (Dragon) **Kata of the Hiten Mitsurugi-ryu because I am the only one who can teach a samurai to use it."**

Kenshin felt a jolt of energy run through him as everything finally clicked into place: the fact that he had naturally taken a battojutsu stance to release Tensuga, the fact that all of the movements and attacks that Tensuga had taught him since he learned Tensuga's name felt as if they were part of another form of the Hiten Mitsurugi that felt unbalanced with an otachi and wakazashi pairing, the fact that his flash step had always been faster than his father's, also the fact that his ability to see through his opponents' attacks was faster than his father's, and finally the fact that his physical strength had grown faster than his father's had at Kenshin's age as well as his ambidextrous wielding of the otachi and wakazashi. It all made sense now: all of these things were part of the Ryuu Kata of the Hiten Mitsurugi that he had been learning from Tensuga.

Kenshin also remembered back to before he learned Tensuga's name to just before the bell challenge when Tensuga had asked him if had the courage to claim his birthright, if he was willing to throw everything away for a chance at victory. At the time Kenshin had thought that Tensuga was talking about having the courage to take the leap off of the cliff and to trust in Tensuga completely. Now Kenshin understood that the challenge issued to him back then by Tensuga was talking about if Kenshin had the courage to cast off the way that he fought with Tensuga's first form and to truly embrace his birthright as the heir of the Hiten Mitsurugi-ryu. Kenshin looked at Tensuga after a moment more of contemplation and said, "I am ready to claim my birthright."

Tensuga smiled at him and said as she placed a motherly hand on Kenshin's shoulder, **"Good. Now listen carefully."** …

* * *

 **Zabuza**

Zabuza had been disappointed when he had dispatched the Shihoin brat so easily but had nearly laughed hysterically when his teammate had first been embarrassed by the samurai bitch and then dispatched by the Sarutobi kid that seemed to have some talent with katon jutsu. He was quickly growing bored and was thinking about how he and his remaining teammate were going to kill the samurai's teammates when there was a sound that sounded eerily like a dragon's roar that became a constant stone-grating growl as the air became heavy and began to vibrate in tune with the rumbling. Zabuza and Omi heard one of the shinobi on the other team implore, "Now what?"…

* * *

 **Kenshin**

Tensuga spoke with her hand still on Kenshin's shoulder, **"Now stand and move forward."** …

Kenshin levered himself upright out of the base of the tree, the hilt and lower half of Tensuga's old form still clutched in his left hand as the half a blade still on the ground began to shimmer with an inner…

Tensuga spoke as she moved behind Kenshin while keeping one hand on his shoulder, **"Be honorable in words and action."** …

* * *

 **Zabuza**

Zabuza watched in stunned silence as the mist he had created was burned away by a shockwave of white fire-like reiatsu that caused the air to vibrate even more violently and forced Omi, who was standing to Zabuza's left, to his knees…

* * *

 **Kenshin**

Tensuga spoke again, **"Always seek to protect those who cannot protect themselves."** …

* * *

 **Zabuza**

The sight that greeted him when the mist cleared caused Zabuza to take a step back: the Shihoin brat was standing without a single hint of how hard Zabuza had hit him with what appeared to be white flames dancing all over him, as if he had become engulfed in fire. Zabuza whispered, "What the hell is this kid?"…

* * *

 **Kenshin**

Tensuga spoke again, **"Walk the roads that others dare not."** …

* * *

 **Zabuza**

Zabuza was suddenly forced to his knees as the air grew even heavier under the spiritual pressure that the kid was radiating as the flames turned into a full-blown bonfire that caused the air to burn his lungs as he breathed. He watched with an emotion that he had never experienced before beginning to cool the bloodlust in his veins as the red bandoleer that encircled the boy from left shoulder to right hip was suddenly engulfed in a pure black flame-like reiatsu that migrated to the boy's right shoulder and back, where it reformed itself into a wide double-wide buckled bandoleer that was matte black with no markings upon it and had a matching bundle attached to his back with one open end at his right shoulder and the other, his left hip…

* * *

 **Kenshin**

Tensuga spoke to Kenshin again, **"Fight the battles that others cannot."** …

* * *

 **Zabuza**

Zabuza felt that strange emotion that he never knew before chill his blood even further as the same white fire reiatsu engulfed the part of the zanpaktou that the kid was holding and reshaped it into what appeared to be a katana, but unlike any he had ever seen. The blade was as black as a starless night with a new moon with a plain white-over-black hilt gripped in the boy's left hand in a reverse grip, and just above the pure black throat, the sword featured the kanji character for 'Honor' engraved into the blade and glowing with an inner light that matched the boy's reiatsu…

* * *

 **Kenshin**

Tensuga spoke for the final time, **"Know that there is honor in sacrifice."** …

* * *

 **Zabuza**

Suddenly, the half of the blade that Zabuza had cut off and was still lying on the ground was engulfed in the same black and white reiatsu and flew to the boy's right hand where it reformed as the twin of the zetsurin-style katana in the boy's left hand only with a different kanji symbol engraved into the blade, this one said 'Sacrifice' but glowed with that same inner white light.

Suddenly the weight pressing Zabuza and everyone else in the clearing down disappeared. Zabuza looked at the boy that he and his team were sent to kill and that strange emotion that had been building inside him seemed to chill his blood even further as the white flames continued to dance all over the boy's body. He watched as the boy respectfully slid the now solid black swords into their sheathes that were hidden inside the bandoleer across his back and adopted a crouched L-stance with his left side away from Omi and him, both hands on the hilts of the twin swords…

* * *

 **Kenshin**

Kenshin opened his eyes after he had taken the modified battojutsu stance and gasped at the clarity with which he could see with his Tengan. The rest of the world was still muted in gray-dulled versions of their original colors but he saw every detail of his opponents in sharp contrast. Now, instead of seeing what just one opponent was going to do, he could see what both of his opponents were going to do and immediately knew how to counter their techniques, he could read their emotions, one of them, Misty One, was angry about his brother being killed so easily by the other members of Kenshin's team, but was also eager to test his skills against Kenshin, and suddenly Misty One's name came to him, as if he wore a big bright 'Hi my name is…' sign that said Omi Toranaga on it. The other, Sword Dude, or Zabuza Momochi was as emotionless as glass, but there was a shred of doubt beginning to color his emotions, as if he and his team were not prepared for Kenshin's new sword stance…

* * *

 **Zabuza**

Zabuza heard Omi chuckle, "Bad move, sheathing your swords kid."

With that, Zabuza watched as Omi took his first step forward in order to charge at the Shihoin kid head-on. Suddenly the boy was standing behind and to Omi's right with both of his swords drawn and held to his sides. Zabuza was about to laugh at the boy for missing such a big target as Omi, but then he heard the boy say in an almost-whisper that carried through the entire clearing, "Hiten Mitsurugi: Ryuumaisen (Dragon's Dance Flash)."

Before Zabuza could ponder what the name of that attack meant, a multitude of flashes of black steel, too many to count, seemed to pass through Omi's body from innumerable angles. An instant later, a peal of thunder echoed around the clearing as Omi's body was blown apart, along what Zabuza knew had been the swords' paths from the boy's sheathes to where he held the two blades at the moment, by a shockwave created by the swords' passing and accompanied by Omi's life blood spraying out of his body, almost becoming a fine mist in the force of the shockwave.

The boy then straightened as the multitude of uneven parts of Omi's body hit the ground with a series of wet _thud-thud_ some sixty feet away. When he turned his eyes on Zabuza, he could feel the bloodlust that burned within those now completely void-black eyes that had a silver inverted "Y" and a regular "Y" stacked on top of each other to form a silver six-bladed star centered in his each of his eyes cut straight through him and accompanied by the slightly psychotic smile that gave the boy an almost demonic appearance, Zabuza then knew what the emotion was that he had been feeling for the first time in his life: fear, pure and unbridled fear.

Zabuza felt his sword hand start to shake as the paralyzing emotion gripped him, seeming to lock every muscle in his body. He was trying to think about what to do next to get rid of this fear when the boy spoke, "I see what you are trying to do, Zabuza Momochi, Demon of the Bloody Mist's ANBU, and a member of the Seven Swordsmen. You are trying to figure out how to break the hold that my bloodlust seems to have you in. Then once you figure that out, you intend to try to use your mist technique to blind my Tengan, and then will try to dispatch me with your silent killing technique. However there is one problem with that train of thought."

Zabuza gave him as hard a look as he could manage while being paralyzed by fear and suddenly felt itchy all over, "And that problem would be?"

Zabuza felt a chill run down his spine as the boy smiled at him before he faded into nothing, just an afterimage.

Zabuza's eyes snapped wide as he heard the boy's voice from _behind_ him a couple of seconds before the afterimage _in front of_ him faded, "You assume that I am just going to stand there and let you pursue that course of action."

Suddenly nine cuts opened up on various points of Zabuza's body in the same spots that the itching sensations had come from: one on each of his shoulders, one on each arm going from wrist to elbow, one on the backs of each arm just above the elbow, severing the tendons holding his triceps to his elbows, one diagonally across each thigh, and another across the center of his chest. As Zabuza fell to his knees, using his sword with the tip buried in the ground to keep him from completely collapsing, he heard the boy say, "Hiten Mitsurugi: Kyuuryuusho (Nine Dragon Slash)."

As Zabuza knelt there, watching his blood drip onto the ground, he felt the boy's hand rest on the back of his neck and felt a powerful kidoh wrap around him, freezing him in place. He then heard the boy's voice next to him as the boy knelt down next to Zabuza, his swords now sheathed, until the two of them were at eye level. When Zabuza looked at the boy, the boy said, "Consider this: You were sent here to kill or capture me with no prior knowledge of my skills or capabilities beyond what little I have shown in public here in my own village, or what was documented in mission reports filed by my sensei upon our return to the village. Therefore, you and your team had no prior knowledge of my clan's kenjutsu (sword techniques). Now, while I am grateful that none of my clan's kenjutsu has made out of the village besides what little we show our enemies, if you follow that train of thought, then the question arises: how valuable are you to your village if they sent you on what amounts to a suicide run? Also, who was it that really hired you if you were handed a map by a _Konoha_ shinobi and the points I made just a moment ago are also true?"

Zabuza realized what the kid was saying was absolutely correct and had been running through his head since they received this assignment. He looked at the kid, "So am I to bleed out here for your amusement or are you going to finish me off?"

Kenshin frowned and shook his head, "No, you will not bleed out nor will I finish you off. I was very careful when I executed the Nine Dragon Slash as to not make the cuts as deep as the attack would normally require so that you wouldn't die."

Zabuza was amazed and couldn't keep the question from his voice as he asked, "Why?"

He saw the boy, Kenshin, give him another wry smile, "I sense that our paths will cross again under better circumstances and that we may even become friends in the future. Consider what I have said, also, I will take that Earth scroll off of you now."

With that, the boy stood up, moved behind Zabuza, knelt down, and Zabuza felt the boy rummaging around in his equipment pouch until his hand came out with the scroll. Zabuza heard the boy stand up behind him and heard the boy speak again, "The binding technique that I used has my own little twist to it: it will start to heal you and will keep you restrained long enough for my team and I to get far enough away that you won't be able to follow us. Also the healing part will only heal you enough so that you can get out of the forest. Farewell for now, Zabuza."...

* * *

 **Tier**

Since entering the forest through gate thirty-eight, Tier and her team had been moving through the forest using shunpo and shunshin to move from tree to tree for all of an hour when she sensed someone following them. As she stretched her senses out further, Tier could tell that they were being followed by three fairly strong samurai based on the amount of reiatsu she was sensing. Tier spoke softly to her teammates following her, "Looks like we're being followed. Three samurai a few hundred yards behind us, closing fast."

Tier heard Isane ask, "So what do you want to do?"

Tier thought about it, her mind running through some tactics and battle strategies that she had learned from their sensei. As she was about to settle on one strategy when the three of them were blast of white flame-like reiatsu that was accompanied by a peal of thunder that turned into a constant roar and a pressure unlike anything she had felt before. As soon as the shockwave passed them, Tier and her entire team were slammed into the ground and pinned down by the weight of it. All of them were having difficulty breathing because the air felt like it was going to scorch their lungs. Tier turned her thoughts inward, _Tiburon, what is this reiatsu?_

Tiburon answered, **"Can't you tell whose reiatsu it is? Ignore the chaos around you and focus on what you feel in the reiatsu."**

Tier did as Tiburon said and gasped as she found the emotional core of the reiatsu, _Kenshin! Why is he like this? It feels as if his reiatsu is out of balance._

She heard Tiburon chuckle, **"Out of balance or was it out of balance before and now his reiatsu is becoming balanced?"**

Before Tier could ask what Tiburon meant, the crushing weight and debilitating heat disappeared just as suddenly as it had appeared.

As she stood, Tier looked at her teammates to make sure that they were okay and saw something that made her blood run cold, a massive samurai, an Iwagakure (Hidden Stone Village) hitai-ate on his wide brow, stood behind Isane with his sword drawn and raised to attack her from behind…

* * *

 **Isane**

Isane looked up to see Tier already on her feet and looking towards where she and Shizune were still recovering with what started as a look of relief but Isane saw it morph into a look of horror just as a shadow fell over her. Isane looked up to see a large zanpaktou descending towards her and closed her eyes moments before hearing Tier say in her deep alto, "Hakudoh no Sanjio-kyuu: Mizu Shōtotsu (Ice Water Collision)."

An instant later, Isane heard a whistling sound like in a hail storm pass over her head before impacting on the chest of the samurai that was in the process of swinging his sword down at her with a wet _thud_ that blasted the air from his lungs and sent him flying backwards to hit the base of a tree at the edge of the small clearing that they were in. She opened her eyes as she heard Tier say, "Attacking someone when they are down, that is dishonorable in the extreme. My name is Tia Halibel and I will fight you."

Isane looked at Tier, the unofficial lieutenant of their team. She stood still, her feet shoulder width apart, arms crossed over her already developing bust, eyes cold and calculating as she evaluated the large samurai that was now rising from where he had been blasted to by the surprise hakudoh. As he rose, Isane could see that his face had turned crimson and was twisted into an ugly visage of anger, not that he had been that attractive to begin with. The samurai that had tried to attack her stood well over seven feet tall with a large face that featured a flattened nose, large gray eyes that held no remorse, fat lips that were wholly unattractive, and a square jaw. He had a broad frame that looked to be heavy with muscle that more trained for bulk than finesse, massive hands, and tree trunks for legs. He was wearing a maroon version of the standard shihakusho with his hitai-ate tied in its traditional spot featuring a pair of boulders engraved into it, one large with a smaller one slightly eclipsing one side. He sneered at Tier, his voice booming, "I am Jirôbô Ikkanzaka, the foremost user of projectile weapons amongst the ranks of the samurai of Iwagakure. Watch and tremble in fear."

With that, he drew his massive zanpaktou that looked like its guard was formed from two circular designs that Isane couldn't make out as he said, "Cut them to ribbons, Tsunzakigarasu (Splitting Crow)!"

As he released, the blade scattered into countless spinning blades that had a curved blade on each side of the hollow center with the cutting edge on the leading edge when the blades were spinning. Isane felt a chill go down her spine as she watched the cold smile spread across his face as he basked in the fear that both she and Shizune were showing at the sight of his released zanpaktou as well as how bloodthirsty his reiatsu was as a strange hum filled the air, "Well, does the sight of my zanpaktou terrify you with your puny body and small sword?"

Isane's focus was stolen as she heard Tier chuckle softly, "No, actually it doesn't. Do you want to know why?"

She watched as Jirôbô's face grew even more ugly as he asked, "Why aren't you afraid of me? My size alone should terrify you."

Isane watched as Tier reached up with her right hand and hooked her right index finger into the ring on the end of one of the cross-tree branches that formed the broadsword styled hilt of her zanpaktou and pulled the blade from its sheathe slowly. Isane never got over how Tier's blade in its released state was nothing more than a half inch of steel that formed the outline of the blade with nothing to fill in that outline, as if it was a mold that had been randomly attached to the broadsword styled hilt, but as it was in its unreleased state currently, Tier's sword featured a solid blade. As Tier pulled the blade further from the sheathe and reached the last part, Isane watched as she flicked her wrist in that certain way that sent her blade spinning out to her right as she let the ring go and caught the hilt perfectly with the blade pointed out away from her body and adopted her null stance with her sword held low and off to her right.

She watched as Jirôbô's face twisted in rage at being ignored so completely that he roared as he sent several of his blades spinning towards Shizune and herself as the whirring sound grew louder as the blades came closer. Suddenly they heard Tier's emotionless voice again, "Hakudoh no Yonjuu-kyuu: Kōri Hariarashu (Destructive Arts Number Forty-Nine: Ice Needle Storm)."

Isane and Shizune reacted instantly, using shunpo and shunshin to move from where they had fallen to behind Tier facing towards their opponent as a storm of senbon-sized ice needles intercepted the spinning blades, shattering them in midair. She watched with a mild sense of amusement as Jirôbô's face went from one of rage to one of shock and surprise as the broken remnants of a number of his blades fell to the ground about halfway between where he stood and where the three of them were standing.

As the massive man that had attacked her looked over the three of them, Isane got the distinct impression that he was trying to determine who was either the strongest or the weakest of the three of them. Isane shivered as his eyes settled on her, an evil grin stealing across his face as if he had come to a decision about who he was going to attack. She watched as he gathered himself to attack her when movement to her right caught her attention. Isane watched as Tier brought her sword up straight in front of her with her arm out straight, elbow locked, left hand resting on her bicep as a point of support. She gasped as she saw the blade of Tier's zanpaktou was surrounded by the golden light of Tier's reiatsu as the white clad warrior whispered, "Ola, Azul (Blue Wave Gun)."

Isane watched as Tier said the name of the attack, a concentrated blast of golden reiatsu shot from the tip of her sword and leapt across the distance between her and their attacker, shattering several of their attacker's spinning blades that were gathering above him to attack her. She saw their aggressor's shock at the sudden attack as the fragments from the broken blades rained down on him, hitting his head and shoulders. Isane watched as Tier disappeared in shunpo and reappeared behind their attacker, her sword held off to her right in both hands.

Jirôbô looked stunned as all of the remaining spinning blades shattered into so many fragments of his unreleased zanpaktou blade that they appeared as a fine dust to be carried away by the wind. At the same instant, dozens of deep slashes appeared all over his body, causing blood to spray from his body as he fell to his knees. Isane watched as he looked over his shoulder at Tier, who had moved back into her null stance, his blood-soaked face a mask of horror as he gasped out, "How? How could you defeat me so easily?"

Isane watched as Tier straightened up and walked back to where Jirôbô was kneeling, her sword held in her right hand as she stopped before the kneeling man, their eyes on the same level. She watched as Tier answered in a cold voice that sent a chill down Isane's spine, "As you have no honor and were going to attack the perceived weakest member of my team, I see no reason to answer either of your questions."

With that and a flash of steel, Jirôbô's head was removed from his shoulders in an explosion of blood that matched the man's height when he was standing from the stump of his neck and his head rolling down his back. As Tier turned back towards where Isane and Shizune were standing, all three of them heard a feminine voice call out as a heavy reiatsu caused the air to vibrate and ground to shake under their feet, making it hard for Isane and Shizune to breathe, "What the fuck? Ji-kun was taken down in four attacks? I hope you've said your fucking prayers to whatever fucking deity you worship."

Isane watched as Tier gave the girl a deadpan look, "Oh and why is that?"

The black haired, horse faced female samurai of the team gave Tier a look that Isane supposed was supposed to be threatening, but fell far short of the mark, "Because, I am going to kill you, bitch, for killing my Ji-kun."...

* * *

 **Tier**

Tier smiled at the two new arrivals, her excitement at the fight to come causing her blood to sing. She mentally thanked Kenshin for the millionth time that he had helped train her to the point she was at now. Tier was going to have to do something very special for him when they met back up after these exams. She quickly glanced at her teammates, as if to say 'here we go again', before turning back to the new arrivals, her voice held the same cold edge that it had earlier, "Bring it on, Iwa-bitch."

With that, the female samurai rushed forward, using shunpo to close with Tier and the battle was joined...

* * *

 **A/N: I know, I know... I need to stop tweaking the chapters and just let them be, but when I notice gross errors as the one that prompted this update to this chapter, I just couldn't leave it alone.**

 **As always: Read, enjoy, review if you want, and please favorite if you want!**


	9. The Second Exam: Team Three's Battle

**A/N: Here we go... yet another chapter posted. Apologize for the wait.**

 **1\. Speech/Thoughts Key:**

 **"You do realize what the definition of insanity is, right?" - Zanpaktou Spirit/Biiju/Summoned Creature Speech**

"Yes, I am very well aware of what the definition of insanity is." - Human Speech

 _ **Well then, why do you keep trying this asinine idea if you know that what you are doing is the very definition of insanity? -**_ **Zanpaktou Spirit/Biiju/Summoned Creature Thoughts**

 _I don't know, because a little bit of insanity goes a long way? -_ Human Thoughts

 **2\. I do not have the great fortune necessary to purchase the rights to Bleach, Naruto, Naruto Shippuuden, or Rurouni Kenshin... poor me...**

 **3\. Anyway... on with the story!**

* * *

 **The Second Exam: Team Three's Battle**

* * *

 **Tier**

She hid a smaller version of the patented 'Shihoin Battle Grin' behind the high collar of her half jacket as she watched her opponent charge at her in seemingly slow motion, regardless if the horse-faced samurai girl was using a laughable shunpo or not. Tier really had to thank Kenshin for not holding back as much as he could have during their sparring sessions over the last five months. As the girl reached the point halfway between where she had started and where Tier stood, Tier decided that she had had enough of waiting for her opponent to cross the sixty-odd yards between them...

* * *

 **Shizune**

Shizune had watched as the unnamed horse-faced samurai had become little more than a black-topped crimson-clad blur as she rushed at Tier who stood perfectly still waiting for her opponent to arrive. As she watched, it seemed to Shizune that Tier had suddenly grown tired of waiting as she _disappeared_ in shunpo, only to appear a little behind the now dead-stopped Iwa samurai, her sword held to out to her right at shoulder height, as if she had executed a slashing attack from her left hip out to where she now held her sword with her arm extended. Shizune was about to wonder if Tier had missed when a razor-thin line appeared on the female Iwa samurai's torso from right hip to her left shoulder a moment before a massive spray of blood exploded from her body, splashing on the ground for several feet out in front of her. She watched as the Iwa samurai's stunned and blood-soaked face turned towards Tier and asked in a shaky and disbelieving voice, "How...how are you so powerful?"

Shizune watched as Tier straightened to her full height and said in her usual dispassionate tone, "Because I have learned that power is nothing without the understanding of when or how to use it. Not that you will have a chance to learn that lesson."

She watched as the female Iwa samurai crumpled to the ground, dead before she hit. Shizune was about to comment to Tier when she sensed a sudden rise of killer intent from the trees around them an instant before she heard the whistling of a kunai hurtling through the air. She caught sight of the diamond-shaped throwing knife hurtling towards Tier's back from one of the trees surrounding the clearing that they were in and reacted on instinct by throwing a kunai of her own and knocking the other out of the air with a metallic _clang_ and ring as both kunai fell to the ground while turning towards where the kunai had been thrown from and frowning, "You might as well come out, we know you're there."

Shizune and the rest of her team watched as a group of Iwa genin joined the lone remaining samurai from the horse-faced samurai's team standing across the clearing from they stood. As she scanned the new arrivals, all of them were wearing what Shizune guessed was the standard attire for shinobi from Iwa, the crimson tunic that only had one sleeve, the matching pants and hitai-ate, and black shinobi boots. All of them had the typical Iwa shinobi look to them: a stone-hard build that showed their physical strength and was keeping in line with the very strong Daton Jutsu (Earth Element Technique) affinity that was as common amongst the shinobi of Iwagakure as a Katon Jutsu affinity was found amongst the Konoha shinobi ranks, dark hair, lightly tan skin, strong jaw lines, and heavy brows...

* * *

 **Isane**

Isane stood a little to Tier's left, matching Shizune's position on their leader's right. As she studied their opponents arrayed across the clearing from them, her practiced eyes looking for the one that would start the inevitable fight. Isane rested her hand on the hilt as she stepped into a ready stance, her sword loosened in its sheath. Her eyes flickered back and forth between the Iwa nin and samurai arrayed against the three of them. She smiled at the lot of them, all of them far weaker than her and her teammates. Her eyes flickered to Tier, who seemed to be smiling under the collar of her half jacket as she said, "Well, are you going to attack or stand there and look quite ugly?"...

* * *

 **Yammy**

From where Yammy and his team stood hidden in the trees they watched as the three preteen girls defeated a group that signified all of the remaining Iwa genin and unranked samurai that had been entered into these exams for the sole purpose of weakening the Konohagakure military strength before Iwa and their secret allies Kiri and Kumo attacked Konoha, sparking another war over pointless things, well pointless to him maybe, like who had the most jinchuuriki, which country had the most land, who was the most powerful, and so on and so forth... blah blah blah. He didn't care, nor did anyone else on his team for that matter, all of that political bullshit was just that, bullshit. No, what Yammy and his team cared about were two very simple things: how many could they kill and how many women could they ruin. That was it, pure, plain, and simple. A predatory smile broke across his broad face as he remembered how he and his teammates had broken the two genin on one of the Suna teams in the exams just after entering the forest and then had forced the two males to watch as the three of them gangbanged the fuck out of the sand-colored haired kunoichi on their team and left her bleeding from all three of her fuck holes for the two males to clean up. The indignant rage that the two males had displayed as the four of them had their way with the Suna kunoichi was priceless. Her defiance at the beginning had been absolutely delicious, but like all women that they had played with in the past, she had succumb to the physical reactions her body was having to being overly stimulated in the ways that it had been. That slut would never think about sex the same way again.

He chuckled as he watched the bleach blonde of the all female team that they had been stalking finished off the last of the Iwa genin after nearly ten minutes of fighting. Yammy looked to one of his teammates, Nnoitra Gilga, a man whose wiry build was the opposite of Yammy's hulking frame of iron muscle, and said with a lecherous grin upon his face, "What do you say boys, should we go introduce ourselves to the lovely ladies down there?"

Yammy watched as Nnoitra chuckled evilly while matching his own grin with one that made the man's long face almost split in half, "We should. After all, it would be rude not to introduce ourselves to the girls who are going to be our next set of 'dates'."...

* * *

 **Shizune**

Shizune's breath was coming in ragged gasps as she was bent over with her hands on her knees in an attempt to catch her breath after their fight with the five Iwa teams that had shown up. Fight, hell, it was nothing short of a battle. A battle in which the fruits of their training with Retsu-sensei had shown through with how well the three of them had worked together, each capitalizing on the others' abilities to come up with combo attacks that caught their opponents completely off-guard. She also had to thank both of her parents for teaching her some of their techniques and fighting styles to help her get this far. As her breathing became more even and her heart rate slowed, Shizune straightened up to see Isane sheathing the now-sealed Itegumo and Tier returning Tiburon to its sheathe on her back. Shizune had to admit, both of the samurai on her team had to be amongst the strongest in their graduating class. As she was about to move towards the other two who stood on the opposite side of the clearing, a black-clad samurai with matching hair that fell to either side of a face that would never be anything short of ugly and a willow-thin frame appeared in front of her out of shunpo with a sickening grin on his face.

She was barely able to block the zanpaktou blade being swung at her in a wide arc by the samurai in front of her with a kunai that she had drawn on instinct alone. The sound of screeching metal filled the clearing as their two blades met, drawing the attention of the rest of her team as both female samurai exploded into action hurtling towards her to help, only to be cut off as the freak-in-front-of-her's teammates arrived on the scene, blocking her own teammates from reaching her. Shizune was about to wonder how these three who were obviously powerful by how much reiatsu they were pumping out were able to sneak up on her and her teammates when she saw the grin on her opponent's face split into a full-blown smile that sent a sickening chill down Shizune's spine. She watched as his eyes hungrily roved her body as the wind shifted and she caught the cloying scent rolling off of him. It was a scent that made her gag as well as an icy hand clutch at her heart; the mingled scent of blood and forced sex.

Shizune watched as her opponent chuckled, "So my snow-haired love toy, how about you and old Nnoitra here go behind those trees over there and I'll show you what a real man can do for a girl like you."

She returned the smile as she gathered chakra into her mouth, converting it into several different chemicals that when combined would create a big problem for her opponent, and made a series of one-handed hand seals behind her back as she said, "How about not. Ninpo: Dokugiri no Jutsu (Ninja Arts: Poison Fog Technique)."

With that she blew a massive purple cloud of poisonous gas directly into her stunned opponent's face as she used shunshin to disengage and get some breathing room...

* * *

 **Tier**

Tier had watched as the black-haired rail-thin samurai had _appeared_ out of shunpo in front of Shizune and instantly attacked her by swinging his zanpaktou at her from her right. She didn't even have to glance at Isane to know that they were of the same mind on this, so she launched herself forward in an effort to reach her teammate at the same time as Isane had. As she was hurtling forward, Tier sensed more than saw the blade coming at her from behind her. The sound of metal grating against metal filled the clearing as she redrew her zanpaktou and intercepted the blade being swung at her by the mountain of meat that was now in front of her, and he was a mountain standing even taller than her first opponent in the forest, what was his name again? Anyway he stood taller than that guy with a frame that was easily twice as broad as the guy whose name she couldn't remember, and was thick with heavy muscle, black hair that started in four corn rows on top of his head and went back to be gathered in a massive ponytail at the back of his head, broad features with a flattened nose, red marks on his face that only served to accentuate his pronounced cheek bones, heavy black eyebrows were set above cold and merciless black pinpricks of eyes, and his fat lipped mouth was split in a lecherous grin. Tier noticed that the man smelled of freshly-spilled blood and recent forced sex.

She used shunpo to gain some separation from her opponent. Tier kept her eyes glued on him as she thought, _I need to end this quickly so that I can help Shizune_. Then she heard Shizune's shout and saw the purple gas and thought, _on second thought maybe she will be alright against her opponent._

She brought her sword up in front of her and was about to use one of her attacks when her opponent _appeared_ out of shunpo and launched a horse cart sized fist at her face. Tier reacted on instinct and brought her sword up to intercept the incoming fist. The energy transferred from her attacker's fist to her sword sent her sliding backwards and sending tendrils of pain shooting up her arm. She thought as she came to a stop a few seconds and several yards later, _damn he hits harder than Kenshin when we are going almost full out. I can't hold back against this guy or I will put the entire team at risk._

With her mind made up, Tier loosened her mental grip on her reiatsu and felt the familiar cooling sensation of her reiatsu coursing through her body as the air around her began to vibrate as she became bathed in the golden glow of her reiatsu. She brought her sword up at arm's length and said, "Ola, Azul."

She watched as the blast of golden reiatsu burst from her sword and slammed her attacker full in the chest, causing an explosion that obscured her opponent in a cloud of smoke...

* * *

 **Isane**

Isane watched as Shizune had spat her cloud of poison and Tier fired off one of her zanpaktou's attacks to try to get rid of her opponent so that they could come up with a strategy to battle these Kumo samurai. She moved to assist Tier against the apparently larger, literally, threat but was cut off as the third member made himself known by appearing out of shunpo in front of her. He had brilliant blue hair that he kept at a moderate length, matching eyes and eye brows, sharp features that, when combined with the glint in his eyes, made her feel as if she was in the presence of an apex predator, and a broad frame that stood an inch or two taller than her and was sheathed in muscles that gave her the impression of an almost feline-esque build that lent itself to both speed and power.

She saw that he was wearing a black open half jacket with nothing underneath, black hakama pants with a white obi, and black shinobi sandals. His zanpaktou was sheathed in a white sheath that was slid through his obi at his left hip with a light blue hilt. Isane watched as he gave her a sickening smile, "So, are you the strongest of your group?"

Isane leapt back and drew her zanpaktou, shouting as she landed in her shikai kata, "Hashire, Itegumo (Run, Frozen Snow)."

Her sword was surrounded by a silver light as it changed shape, adding two tanto-length blades at forty-five degree angles from the central katana blade, which became thinner than it had been in its unreleased state. As she finished releasing, Isane felt the familiar rush of her reiatsu flowing through her. She brought her sword up and concentrated her reiatsu along the blade, causing it to glow with an icy light as she said, "Tsurara Hariken (Icicle Hurricane)."

As she named the attack, a storm of three foot long icicles blasted forward at the speed of sound, causing her blue-eyed foe's eyes to snap wide as he was suddenly forced to protect himself as he was struck by dozens of the spikes, his body being cut up as the brittle ice spikes shattered into hundreds of pieces of icy shrapnel that cut through his body in dozens of places...

* * *

 **Shizune**

She had just turned to see her teammates execute several powerful attacks against their enemies when motion to her right caught her attention and forced her to leap backwards as her opponent lunged at her out of the poison mist with his sword drawn and aimed at her chest, his scream filling the clearing, "You poisonous bitch! I am going to fuck you until you bleed from all three holes before I fucking kill you!"

Shizune used shunshin to move away enough to get ready for her next attack, her hands beginning to flash through a series of hand seals when she was suddenly sent flying while stars exploded in her vision by a powerful backhand from her opponent, who had used shunpo to move within striking distance. As she sailed through the air, dazed, she threw her body into a back flip so that she would land on her feet. Shizune's feet were mere inches from the ground when her opponent brought a powerful knee up into her chest. She gasped as she felt and heard the sickening _pop-pop_ of two of her ribs breaking from the force of the blow. As her body was about to be sent back into the air, Shizune felt a thin-fingered iron grip close around one of her wrists and she found her momentum changed as she was dragged through a spin by her opponent, her wrist snapping in the process, and thrown across the clearing with a ridiculous amount of force. Stars exploded in her vision and pain racked her body as it slammed into the base of one of the trees at the edge of the clearing hard enough to where Shizune started seeing spots in her vision as she crumpled to the ground. Her vision was swimming, telling her that she had at least a concussion on its way to fruition, if not a cracked skull, her body felt heavy, so heavy that she couldn't move properly, and she felt her mouth filling with a warm, sticky liquid that tasted of copper. She thought hazily, _oh great, now I have internal bleeding to contend with as well. Kaa-san will be pissed at me._

Shizune watched in an almost detached state as her opponent stalked towards where she was slumped against the tree she had hit. He gave her that same sickening grin, "Now, if you are done being the noble little lady, why don't we show your teammates how much of a whore you really are?"

She watched as almost as soon as he finished that statement, her opponent's eyes were reduced to pinpricks as his body became racked with coughing fits as he brought his hand up to his mouth, and even if his hand tried to hide it, she could see the blood spurting out of his mouth with each cough. Shizune chuckled and found out how much that hurt so she stopped, but she would have continued to laugh at the soon-to-be-dead-freak standing before her if it didn't hurt so damn much, "Well, I don't know how much you are going to be able to do because that poison in your system will finish you off in a couple of minutes at the most. Hope you've had a nice life, not."

Shizune watched as her opponent suddenly grew even angrier and moved to strike her with his hand cocked back for another punch. She watched as another wave of coughing forced her opponent to his knees as even more blood came out between his fingers this time. Shizune chuckled weakly, "Didn't anyone ever tell you not to mess with a med-nin. We tend to have some very nasty tricks up our sleeves. Now die, you ugly bastard."

She watched in detachment as her opponent collapsed as his body was wracked with convulsions while the poison ran the rest of its course through his body. As Shizune watched her opponent wheeze out his last breath, his body finally falling still as death took him, she had the odd thought that maybe the poison acted a bit too slowly and was considering in a detached manner how she would improve the effectiveness of her poison fog as her eyes retrained to where her teammates were fighting their opponents...

* * *

 **Tier**

Tier had seen the emergence of Shizune's opponent and the quick exchange of blows that had ended with her teammate slammed against the base of a tree at the far end of the clearing. She was about to move towards Shizune's position when there was a sudden spike of reiatsu behind her accompanied by an angry shout that radiated power as the air began to vibrate around her, filled with malice and hate, "Buchikirero, Ira (Be Enraged, Angry Beast)!"

Tier spun in time to see the shockwave of her opponent's release spike blow away the lingering smoke in a burst of crimson light to reveal her opponent standing with a massive warhammer resting on one shoulder with the wrist of the associated arm resting on the crimson leather wrapped lower half of the haft of the warhammer, twin massive heads dominated the other end of the haft with images of cruel acts that would be carried out in anger engraved on the edges around the massive square shaped twin heads that were as large as her body was tall from her shoulders to her hips, and the entire hammer above the wrappings was almost black in color, which lent the hammer an absolutely brutal appearance. Her eyes were drawn from the warhammer over her opponent's shoulder to the predatory grin now making his already ugly appearance even more so. Seriously, why did she always end up with the ugly opponents? Tier was going to have a very serious discussion with the tenryuu when she was done here as to why this always seemed to happen to her.

She put that idea aside for the moment as she had to focus on her opponent and worry about her bad luck in fighting unattractive opponents later. Tier narrowed her eyes as she watched her opponent lifted his hammer off of shoulder with the help of a roll of his base-of-a-mountain-wide shoulders sending the hammer into a smallish, seriously what could be considered small when her opponent was as large as a mountain, spin that aided him in gripping his hammer by its haft and stepped into a low stance before her. Tier thought as she evaluated her opponent's stance with his now-released zanpaktou, _if I let that thing hit me just once, I'm done for._

She heaved a sigh and thought, _nothing for it then, I will have to release my zanpaktou to match his level_.

Tier brought her zanpaktou up as she stepped into a familiar ninjato kata and said, "Ute, Tiburon."...

* * *

 **Isane**

Isane watched as Tier uttered the release for her zanpaktou and felt the release spike as her friend's zanpaktou became nothing more than the edges of the blade, as it had when she had released it five months ago and every time since then when she had released it while sparring against Kenshin. She then watched as her friend ratcheted up the intensity of her own fight, lunging forward to engage the mountain of humanity with his giant-ass warhammer in a violent exchange of blows that took Isane's breath away. Isane was so caught up in watching Tier's fight that she didn't notice her own opponent's attack until it was almost too late for her to react as she jumped back from the lunge, his blade cutting the front of her kimono in a thin cut just above her navel.

As she jumped backwards, she brought her own sword around to attack him, managing to open a thin cut on his left flank that earned her an almost inhuman growl from her opponent as blood began to flow from the now opened wound. Isane watched as he spun on her with almost cat-like agility and launched his own brutal swing at her, which she deflected with her own zanpaktou. Then she, using the momentum from her deflection to add to her own natural speed, spun on the balls of her left foot and swung at him again, on this time with very different results. Isane watched in stunned amazement as he _caught_ her blade bare-handed while looking at her with that same predatory grin, "Now, now we can't be having you getting all worked up before the fun really begins, now can we?"

Before Isane could wonder what he meant, she caught a powerful roundhouse kick in the stomach that sent her flying backwards to slam into a tree, causing stars to explode in her vision. As she was preparing to stand, her opponent appeared in front of her out of shunpo with both her sword and his in his hands. Isane only had a moment to register this before the blades were stabbed through her hands, pinning her to the tree in the form of a crucifix with her feet barely resting on the ground. She let out a horrible scream as the blades slowly slid through her hands, severing tendons and blood vessels...

* * *

 **Tier**

Tier watched during a brief pause during her own engagement with her opponent as Isane looked as if she might gain the upper hand against her own opponent, that was until he had done something that she had only seen Kenshin do, catch a zanpaktou blade bare-handed. The blue haired bastard had then sent Isane careening into a nearby tree, where he then pinned her hands out to either side with his own zanpaktou as well as hers. That was enough to send her blood boiling in rage, but before she could do anything about it, her opponent swung his massive hammer at her, causing Tier to defend herself with her own zanpaktou blade. As her blade intercepted the hammer, she watched her opponent's face split into a shit-eating grin. Before she could wonder what he was grinning about, Tier caught a flicker of movement out of the corner of her right eye. She used shunpo to avoid the flying kick aimed at her and as soon as she came out of shunpo, stars exploded in her vision as a hand from an unknown assailant connected with her temple hard enough to send her sailing through the air.

As Tier was flying, she used what she had learned during the team training sessions with Retsu-sensei and her sparring sessions with both Kenshin and her father to throw her body into a flip so that she could land on her feet and directed reiatsu to her feet to stop her slide after only a few more yards. After she stopped sliding, Tier dropped to one knee, using her sword to keep her from falling flat on her face as she surveyed the new arrival who was obviously part of the same team as the mountain-man and blue boy duo that she was left to contend with. He stood just over six feet tall with a slender frame that showed almost no signs of him being a samurai, despite the blow he had just landed on her saying otherwise, chin-length styled pink hair set over and around refined, almost handsome features, light brown behind a pair of white square-framed glasses, and a reiatsu that radiated the same scent and madness as the other three had.

She almost let out a groan as she straightened up and adopted her shikai kata again. Tier felt as if a block of ice slid down her spine as she felt his eyes rove her body with a possessive hunger that clued her in as to what was running through his head, and it wasn't if she could help him find a shirt that would go with his obnoxiously pink hair, seriously, did anyone have that color hair naturally? Her eyes flickered between her three opponents as she used everything that she had learned to evaluate and decide the best course of action. Tier loosened her mental hold on her reiatsu and let it flow through her body at full force, a fierce golden glow surrounding her as she sent a thought inward, _Tiburon, I think that I am going to have to use that new technique you showed me._

Almost instantly she heard Tiburon's response in her head, **"I was wondering when you were going to get around to using that. It only took your two teammates being knocked out of the fight and you getting knocked around to even want to use it, so why are you wasting time talking to me?"**

Tier growled inward, _smartass_ , before bringing her sword up into a high guard above her head, focusing her reiatsu along the blade's cutting edge, forcing it to become as thin and sharp as possible as she prepared the attack. She watched as Blue Boy gave her a lecherous smile and said tauntingly, "Anytime today, sweetheart. The more you struggle now, the more fun it is to break you with our cocks later."

Tier's eyes narrowed as she focused her attack on Blue Boy and said as she brought her sword down in a vertical slash, then up and to her left, and finally across her body to her right, ending with her sword held in her right hand at arm's length, releasing three consecutive massive waves of razor thin golden reiatsu at her target, "Toraidento (Trident)."

The three slashing attacks hit a wide-eyed Blue Boy full force, obscuring him from view because of the dust cloud kicked up by the fast moving reiatsu blasts. She only had a moment to bask in her triumph of perfectly executing the attack before a bloodied fist slammed into her face, causing stars to explode in her vision again as she was sent sailing backwards as her now heavily bleeding opponent screamed at the top of his lungs, "You BITCH! I AM GOING TO FUCKING RAPE YOU TO THE POINT WHERE YOU CAN'T MOVE AND THEN I WILL FUCKING KILL YOU!"

Before she flew more than a couple of feet, Tier felt as if she had a metal I-beam slammed into the small of her back, causing her body to flex at the waist as she was almost bent in half by the force of the kick that sent her flying forward into a knee that reversed the angles that her body had previously been forced to as well as having the added effect of forcing air from her lungs in a loud _whoosh_ and breaking a couple of her ribs. But again, she didn't fly very far as her assailant grabbed her by the back of her head and slammed her face first into the ground, causing it to crater under the force of the impact. Tier felt the skin on her forehead just above her right eye get rent open as she felt her nose break with a sickening _crack_ , causing her vision to go white with pain and her eyes to fill with tears as her ears were filled with a sudden ringing. As she was now nearly blinded and deaf with pain, Tier had to rely on the sensations of her body to tell her what was going on, and it wasn't good. Tier felt herself being lifted by her jacket collar from the ground and made to look into the one open brilliant blue eye that was looking at her with pure hatred and malice, her attacker's other eye having been cleaved in two by her last attack, the blood and internal juices of the ruined eye mixing and running down his face to join the blood that was pouring out of the open wound that he now bore from hairline to jawline.

Her attacker held her there for a moment letting her see what she did with unfocused eyes and hearing what he was going to do to her with ears that were ringing so loudly that she couldn't hear him at all. For all his efforts, Tier gave him the one-finger salute, which earned her another swift punch to the solar plexus, blasting any air that she had managed to gather from her lungs followed by a swift twist of her wrist, causing another series of sickening _crack-crack-crack_ followed a few moments later by more searing pain from her now-broken wrist. She watched in detachment as he reared back and threw her as hard as he could towards a thick tree at the far end of the clearing, the ground flashing by seemingly in reverse of the direction she was facing.

 _Shit,_ she thought as she was flying backwards through the air, _I'm exhausted to the point where_ _I can't get my body to move the way I need it to so that I can land_.

Tier was trying to figure out how she was going to land when she felt herself being caught by someone and the energy transferred from her flight to her savior causing both of them to slide backwards only a few feet before they came to a stop. She was so dazed and exhausted from the recent blows and the long fight before that who had caught her didn't register, even when an oh-so-familiar-and-inviting scent encapsulated her. It didn't register until she heard _his_ voice, no more than a low pitched growl that was quiet with barely contained rage, "Tia, who did this to you?"...

* * *

 **A/N: So, yeah...**

 **1\. Got in the appearance of some of my least favorite Arrancar, showed that the girls on Tier's team have some skill, and got in the knight in black armor showing up just in time.**

 **2\. As always, let me know what you think!**


	10. The Second Exam: The Dragon's Rage

**A/N: Here's the next chapter, yay! As always, read, review, and if you have questions...Ask via PM or review.**

 **1\. Speech/Thoughts Key:**

 **"Do I even want to know what you have planned?" - Zanpaktou Spirit/Biiju/Summoned Creature Speech**

"Well, that depends on if you want any part in my plan." - Human Speech

 _ **Oh tenryuu above, you are going to use**_ **that _plan! -_ Zanpaktou Spirit/Biiju/Summoned Creature Thoughts**

 _You said you didn't want to know, so I didn't tell you._ \- Human Thoughts

 **2\. Let me see...nope, still don't have enough to own the rights to Bleach, Naruto, Naruto Shippuuden, or Rurouni Kenshin... so sad. I'm going to go cry anime tears in a corner now.**

 **3\. Next to the Last Chapter of the Second Exam Mini-Arc, I promise! Enjoy!**

* * *

 **The Second Exam: The Dragon's Rage**

* * *

 **The Same Time**

 **Kenshin**

Kenshin and his team had been moving at a fairly quick pace since their run-in with Zabuza and his team. As they had taken an almost as-the-crow-flies course towards the tower, Kenshin had had a lot of time to think about what it meant that someone within the village was trying to have him killed. He was starting to come to a conclusion as to why someone within the village would want him dead when he sensed reiatsu spikes from Tier, Isane, and three unknown samurai from his team's right. He held up his hand to signal the team to stop, his teammates joining him on a branch that was easily as wide as a sidewalk, Kakashi asking, "What's up. Kenshin?"

Kenshin turned to look at his oldest friend and said, "Do you sense reiatsu and chakra spikes coming from our two o'clock, about five hundred yards away?"

Kakashi closed his eyes for a moment before nodding, "Yeah, I can. Two of the reiatsu spikes and the chakra spike seem familiar but the other three reia-, scratch that four other reiatsu spikes are unfamiliar and definitely hostile."

Kenshin nodded, frowning, he knew that Tier could handle almost any opponent thrown at her, their sparring sessions had shown him that, and he trusted in her skills, so why did he have such a bad feeling about how her team's fight was going?

A voice inside his head answered that question, **"Because you care about her, little one, and yes, I can see how important she is to you, even if you do not yet see it."**

Kenshin's frown turned into a full-blown scowl at that bit of news. He couldn't shake the feeling that he needed to go to her because she was in danger from an enemy that was far stronger than her. The Shihoin heir looked back to his friend and the rest of their team and weighed his options, _the test is to see if we can work together as a team and accomplish the mission within the parameters given; meaning the two scrolls still sealed and delivered to the tower in the middle of the forest. We have accomplished the first part, but I feel like if we blindly go to the tower now, then Tia could be seriously hurt or even killed,_ he paused as that thought sank in, causing, for the first time in a while, the cold hand of fear to wrap around his heart, _do I balance her life against the completion of the mission?_

He saw Kakashi shift his weight out of the corner of his eye and turned to face his friend who then spoke, "Kenshin, all of us here know how important Tia is to you, and we don't see it as placing our mission in jeopardy to help out a fellow warrior and friend," he watched as Kakashi turned to see Asuma and Rangiku nodding in agreement, "So lead on and we'll follow."

Kenshin didn't know what to say so he just nodded and launched himself forward in their new direction towards where Tier and her team were fighting, his thoughts going out to the blonde female samurai who had found her way into his heart, _hold on Tia, I'm coming for you._..

* * *

 **Kakashi**

Kakashi had kept a close eye on his friend since that amazing display of strength against Zabuza and his team in the clearing a little while ago and now they were hurtling towards another fight, even though they already had the requisite scrolls to complete the mission, but as he had said to Kenshin just a moment ago before they launched into this rescue mission, he leads and they will follow. He chuckled behind his mask as he and the others followed his best friend towards where his paramour, even if he didn't know it yet, was in a fight for her life, _it seems as if I owe you a gift, Rin-chan because you were right about Kenshin liking Tier._

His musings were cut short as he and the rest of the team arrived at the edge of the clearing where Tier and her team had been fighting in, and man they had been fighting for a while, if the number of Iwa shinobi and samurai bodies that lay broken and strewn about the clearing were any indication, and how exactly did they manage to get that many kunai into such a centralized location as between that one male ninja's legs, wait, never mind, he didn't want to know, and right now, there were more pressing issues, like the fact that Tier was getting a hard lesson in human flight.

Kakashi's eyes flickered to where Kenshin had been a moment earlier as he felt the residual heat from the location where his friend had been only for a moment before disappearing in shunpo, only to reappear in a position to catch Tier and slow both of them down to a stop only a few yards from where he had caught her. As he looked down at the state Tier was in, Kakashi knew what was coming and was glad that he was on Kenshin's side. He almost felt sorry for the three Kumo samurai bastards down there because they were about to meet the only person that scared him more than Minato-sensei's fiancee when she was pissed off, almost. Movement caught Kakashi's attention and what he saw caused his blood to run cold in rage: Isane and Shizune were both obviously injured as Isane was pinned to a tree in a sick imitation of a crucifix with two zanpaktou blades being substituted for nails in her hands, her clothes being ripped from her person by the pink haired samurai, who was also groping her forcefully while a nearly unconscious Shizune was receiving the same treatment from the mountain of human flesh where she had landed on the ground after hitting the tree that she was resting against. As he analyzed the situation, Kakashi decided that it was time to act to protect Tier's teammates, "We have to help them. We can't let those bastards rape our friends."

He saw Asuma and Rangiku nod in agreement, no way that they would leave their friends to such a horrible fate. With their silent agreement, the three of them disappeared in shunpo and shunshin...

* * *

 **Yammy**

Yammy and Szayelaporro hadn't even bothered to pay attention to the fight as Grimmjow had decided to take over the fight with the busty blonde slut. The two of them had turned their attentions to the other two whores so that they could begin to have their fun with them. As they had set to removing the girls' pesky clothing, they felt the blonde's reiatsu spike, heard Grimmjow screaming in rage as he set about breaking the blonde samurai physically, and Yammy had turned in time to see his blue haired teammate throw the blonde girl hard enough to send the girl careening through the air at near terminal velocity across the clearing. Yammy was about to scold Grimmjow for wasting such a fine catch as that blonde when something happened that he hadn't expected, someone wearing a black duster with a matched pair of white hilted zetsurin sheathed on his back in an odd arrangement with one hilt at his left hip and the other at his right shoulder _appeared_ out of shunpo and caught the blonde and only slid a few more yards after catching the blonde. As he watched the way that the new arrival shifted how he was holding the blonde, to where he was holding her carefully, avoiding touching any part of her that was obviously injured, Yammy suddenly had a really bad feeling in his gut. The bad feeling suddenly grew into dread as he heard the new arrival ask the semi-conscious blonde he was holding in a quiet voice that seemed to carry an unimaginable amount of rage, "Tia, who did this to you?"

He was so focused on the duster-clad young warrior that he almost didn't notice the teammates of the duster-clad warrior showing up and taking the blonde's teammates away to a safe distance and the fire-haired bimbo of a samurai and black haired shinobi formed a human shield between the two girls and where Yammy and his team were standing, he didn't really care about the snow haired harlot, this warrior was far more interesting. As he stood there, adopting a nonchalant pose with the twin head of his still released zanpaktou resting on the ground and saw that Granz had done the same with an analytical look on his face as he studied the black duster wearing samurai.

He heard Grimmjow chuckle and boast, "I was the one who fucked your girlfriend up. What are you going to do about it, shrimp?"

Yammy felt that dread be replaced by another, even stronger emotion as the boy said in barely a whisper, "Kakashi, come and get Tia then fall back behind Rangiku and Asuma."

Yammy watched as the boy with the silver gravity-defying hair used the shinobi imitation of shunpo to move forward and carefully collect the blonde samurai whore from the black clad samurai and move back behind the other two who were very warily watching their enraged teammate. He was curious as to what the duster samurai would do now that the girl that he obviously cared a great deal about was out of the combat zone and got his answer when he felt the boy release an inhuman amount of killer intent, so much so that his entire body locked up as cold sweats broke out all over his body. It felt as if millions of swords were carving him apart, piece by piece and the smile that slid across the boy's features sent icebergs sliding down his spine, for it was not a smile that one offers an equal opponent on a battlefield, no, this was the type of smile that a serial killer offers his victims before he kills them, devoid of all emotion and completely psychotic. Yammy thought, _how? How can a boy his age posses this much killer intent and what is with that smile?_

Yammy heard his zanpaktou's booming voice answer in his head, **"He's psychotic, obviously** **."**

He thought, _then why do I feel like his killer intent alone is going to flay the skin from my bones?_

Yammy heard his zanpaktou's response inside his head, **"Because you and your team of serial rapists fucked up and attacked someone he cares about more than himself."**

He thought back on their fight with the all female team and Yammy realized who his zanpaktou was talking about. The only thought that crossed his mind as he watched the boy turn his attention towards Grimmjow, _oh shit..._

* * *

 **Asuma**

Asuma was in shock as he watched his friend cut loose with an insane amount of bloodlust, a cold sweat breaking out all over his body, _how can he have this much bloodlust? It's so intense that it's causing every muscle in my body to lock up._

He voiced his thoughts, fear coloring his words, "How can Kenshin have this much bloodlust?"

Asuma heard Kakashi's voice from behind him, "Because that is the trade off."

Asuma turned his head to look over one shoulder at his friend and rookie of the year of their class, "Trade off? Like how my katon ninjutsu burns through a lot of chakra?"...

* * *

 **Tier**

She had awoken out of her stupor in time to hear Asuma ask his first question and remained quiet because she felt as if something vitally important about the one who already owned her heart was about to be revealed.

She watched as their silver haired friend shook his head, his eyes reflecting his sadness, "No, it's more like how an Uchiha will start to lose his eyesight when he uses the Mangekyō Sharingan. No power in this world comes without a price attached to it. For the Shihoin Clan, being granted the Tengan and the privilege of having one of the Tenryuu joining with them as their zanpaktou, the price is known as Ryuu no Chiyokubō (The Dragon's Bloodlust). It is insatiable, incurable, and all-consuming. They call it 'Battle Psychosis' to put a pretty name to it, but make no mistake, it is bloodlust pure and simple."

Rangiku voiced the question that Tier and Asuma had forming in their minds, "But why does it feel so malevolent this time as compared to when he released some of it against that sword guy's team?"

Tier watched as Kakashi turned to face her where she was resting against a tree directly behind Asuma and Rangiku's human shield wall with Kakashi kneeling next to her, their eyes locking and she saw the depth of sadness for his friend's state reflected there as he continued his explanation, "Because, unlike last time where it was just us in danger from an enemy that we could have defeated using teamwork, this time the only person that Kenshin cherishes more than his family was fighting a losing battle and was in life-threatening danger, and Kenshin is the type that will suffer no harm to those he holds dear, he would rather die first," everyone saw Kakashi pause for a moment before continuing, "he would become a blood-crazed monster before letting the one he holds most dear be injured."

Tier gasped in shock, her thoughts quickly turning inward, _Tiburon, is it true? Would Kenshin truly sacrifice everything he has for me?_

She heard a soft chuckle from inside her mind and suddenly had the mental image of Tiburon giving her a sad eye smile, **"Pup, think back on all your interactions with him and you tell me."**

Tier did just that, closing her eyes as memories of the times she spent with Kenshin flashed through her mind, his kindness in his words and actions towards her, his decisiveness when dealing with those who would seek to harm her, how much he held back during their sparring sessions, even though she tried to push him to the point where he would cut loose with some more of his abilities, and finally the evidence in front of her: him giving himself over completely to his bloodlust to kill the ones who hurt her. She tried to hold back a sob as she felt her heart breaking for the one who would sacrifice everything he was and stood for just to keep her safe. There was only one explanation for it: he loved her...

* * *

 **Grimmjow**

He had been feeling pretty good about his ability to defeat this new arrival, even going so far as to taunt the boy and boast about hurting the well-endowed blonde female samurai he had been fighting, that was until the boy cut loose with this insane bloodlust that felt as if it was going to flay the flesh from his bones and had him rooted where he stood, unable to move a muscle, now that taunt did not seem like such a good idea. Scratch that, this was the worst idea in his long, sad history of bad ideas.

Grimmjow watched as the boy turned his psychotic smile towards him and away from the rest of Grimmjow's team. That was when Grimmjow felt the freezing grip of fear latch onto his heart as the boy, whose eyes were as black as the void with silver six point stars centered in each, answered him, the boy's voice, though barely above a whisper, managed to convey all of his rage at watching the blonde on the other team get beaten up, "Now, Grimmjow Jaggerjack, you will see why the Shihoin are to be feared when those they love are in danger."

 _Oh, fuck, I am so fucked...Wait, ho-_ , his train of thought inquiring as to how the boy knew his name was cut off as Grimmjow received a hurricane force blow delivered by a blur that caught him in the stomach, blasting the air from his lungs while causing a warm liquid that tasted of copper to crawl up the back of his throat, and sending him sailing through the air as the world blurred around him.

After a moment in which he was shocked by the speed with which he was flying, Grimmjow threw his body into a back flip in an effort to be able to land and slow himself down, but as soon as he came out of his back flip stars exploded in his vision as his head was snapped to his right and his trajectory changed by another brutal blow. This time Grimmjow had just enough time to complete his back flip before he crashed back-first into a tree, cracking and denting the wood behind him from the force of the impact. He also felt several things happen at the moment of impact: there was a series of pops that went up his spine in rapid succession, the sickening _crack_ and blinding pain of his left upper arm breaking, another starburst exploded in his vision as his head met the bark of the tree, and finally a nauseating _pop_ as his right shoulder came out of socket.

Grimmjow had just enough time to register all of this before a blur appeared before him, driving a knee into his solar plexus, causing him to be driven deeper into the crater that his landing had created in the side of the tree, the blood that had been threatening to make its presence known in his mouth rushing upward in his throat and bursting out of his mouth as discharge indicating that, along with the pain and chill creeping through his abdomen were any indications, his internal organs were already seriously fucked up. Not that he had a moment to reflect on it as a hand reached forward into his swirling and blood-tinged vision, grabbed him by the face, and physically lifted him out of his homemade crater in the tree just to toss him back into the clearing as if he weighed nothing more than a small child.

At this point, Grimmjow didn't even have the strength to try to control his flight or how he landed as he hit the ground and ragdolled several yards across the clearing. As he came to a rest, he found himself looking back along the trajectory that had led him to his current position in the clearing and saw who it was who had been attacking him: it was the black duster-clad Shihoin boy. Grimmjow found that he didn't even have the strength to move as he watched the boy turn towards him and start slowly stalking towards where he lay with a look in those void-black-and-silver-starred eyes that promised even more pain for Grimmjow. The blue-haired samurai felt fear slide down his spine as he realized that the boy wasn't done beating up on him, _how much more does he intend to do?_

Jaggerjack felt as if a bucket of ice had been poured on him as he watched the Shihoin boy answer him, his voice cold with unrestrained fury, "What's the matter, Grimmjow, I thought that cats always landed on their feet or did I hurt you too badly? Oh, and to answer your question, Grimmjow, I intend to destroy your very existance for what you inflicted and intended to inflict upon the one I cherish above all else."

He felt the cruel hand of fate settle upon him in that moment, knowing that he was totally and completely fucked. When he saw his teammate, Yammy, appear behind the Shihoin boy with his massive warhammer held over his head, his body arched backwards to generate as much power as he could to put into the two-handed overhead swing down at the unsuspecting back of Grimmjow's attacker, he felt a small glimmer of hope flare up inside of him as to maybe he was going to get out of this and live to fight another day. Grimmjow watched as in seemingly slow motion, Yammy's body uncoiled, transferring all of that stored power into the overhead hammer swing down at the head of the Shihoin boy, causing the hammer's haft to bow because of the torque applied by the force of Yammy's swing. That small ember of hope was snuffed out as Grimmjow watched the boy give him a wicked grin as he raised one hand above his head, fingers spread wide, and stopped the hammer's arc dead in its tracks as if it had been swung into a cement wall a mile thick, the ground cratering around the boy as the force of the swing was transferred outward. As Jaggerjack watched, Yammy's mommentum carried him through the swing and when the recoil from the hammer hitting the solid wall of the boy's hand was transferred back up the haft to where Yammy was gripping it with both hands, Grimmjow watched and heard in sick fascination as the air around the clearing was filled with a rapid-fire _crack-crack-crack_ too many times to count as the bones in Yammy's hands clearly shattered. He heard the boy say in the same cold, detached voice, "So someone finally grew a pair and came after me. Too bad for you, Yammy Llargo, that your teammates are unable to help you because of the bloodlust that is singing through my veins right now," he paused for a moment, "Oh, and by the way, you might want to get your hands looked at by a medical professional, they look a little broken to me."

Grimmjow watched as it took a moment for the fact that his hands had shattered to register in Yammy's mind, but when it did, Yammy released the hammer with nerveless fingers and howled like a stuck pig. He watched as Yammy was allowed to howl in pain, his hands, torn and bloody with bits of shattered bone sticking out at odd angles. After what must have been only a few moments, but what seemed an eternity to Grimmjow's pain-addled brain, the boy said in an almost disinterested tone that still carried all of the same fury as before, "You know, you are entirely too loud."

Jaggerjack watched in horror as the boy, in one fluid motion, spun the hammer in midair to where he was gripping Ira's haft in his right hand only, spun, and swung the massive warhammer directly into Yammy's side, causing Yammy's massive body to flex around the head of the hammer as Grimmjow again heard a rapid-fire _crack-crack-crack_ as several of Yammy's ribs broke on the side that the boy hit him with his own hammer. Everything was absolutely still for a moment before Yammy was sent flying through the air. He felt helpless as he watched his teammate fly across the clearing only to be impaled on a tree branch that was a couple of feet thick, the momentum carrying his body all the way to where one of his shoulders was brushing the trunk of the tree. Grimmjow watched as Yammy coughed up a massive amount of blood as pieces of his heart and lungs were plastered onto the branch that was sticking out of Yammy's side. He watched as his teammate struggled for a while to pull himself off of the branch to no avail as he had almost ten feet of tree branch sticking out of him. Jaggerjack watched as blood poured out of the gaping wounds in torrents with each effort that Yammy made to remove himself from the branch.

Grimmjow could see the blood bubbles forming and popping on Yammy's lips, his eyes full of fear, as his labored breathing grew shallower and shallower as his struggles to dislodge himself grew weaker until all motion finally stopped and Yammy let out one last long wheeze before his head fell forward and his broken body hung limp from the tree branch. Motion to his right drew Grimmjow's attention as he watched the released form of Ira dissolve into ash, letting him know that his teammate was well and truly dead. The boy nonchalantly dusted his hands off and said, his voice without any emotion, "Well, that's the end of the mountain-of-meat, and now to finish off the little-blue-panther."

Grimmjow felt his blood run cold, and it had nothing to do with the fact that he was seriously fucked up inside at the moment, as he watched the Shihoin boy stalk towards him. He was ready to accept his fate when another figure appeared out of shunpo between him and the Shihoin boy, Granz. Jaggerjack watched as Granz drew his sword and adopted his shikai stance, saying in a confident tone as Grimmjow felt his reiatsu rising, "Your opponent is me now. I will put you down like a rabid dog."

The mirthless chuckle that the Shihoin boy gave at Granz's act of defiance in the face of someone who had just brutally killed their teammate caused Grimmjow to sense the wavering of uncertainty in Granz's previously steadily rising reiatsu, " _You_ will put _me_ down like a rabid dog, Szayelaporro Granz? How will you do that," the boy paused for a moment and suddenly seemed to be standing in two places at once, one of them where he had been standing, the other now behind and to the right of Granz, "when you are already dead?"

He watched as the afterimage of the Shihoin boy disappeared as if it had used shunpo just as the boy whispered, "Ryuumaisen."

Grimmjow watched in horror as Granz's body was suddenly swallowed by a storm of black steel flashes passing through him for almost a minute straight before a loud _BOOM_ rang out and Granz's body was shattered by the shockwave of the swords' passing, the parts of his body being consumed by pure white flames before they even hit the ground. He looked up into the face of his killer as the boy approached him, the Shihoin's face an impassive mask. Jaggerjack managed to lever himself into a kneeling position on both knees, almost as if offering a prayer to his gods. He looked up into the face of his tormentor as the boy looked down at him. Before Grimmjow could form any kind of antagonistic comment to fire at the boy, he was sent flying with a spartan kick to the chest that lifted him off of the ground and sent him sailing through the air...again. He seemed to be doing that a lot today.

After a few moments of flying, Grimmjow hit the ground shoulders first and rolled backwards, head over feet for several yards before he finally came to a stop lying flat on his back with his head spinning. As he lay there, gasping for breath, his chest on fire, a sure sign that he had at least a couple of broken ribs, not that it would matter because he was pretty sure that he was not leaving this place alive. A shadow fell over him, reached down for him, grabbed him by his throat, and dragged him to his feet as the same cold, mirthless voice said, "Now, now, now Little Blue, we can't have you dying on your back, now can we?"

Grimmjow stood swaying on his feet as his eyes wouldn't focus on anything, a good sign that he had some sort of head injury, again, it wouldn't matter if this fucking bastard in front of him would just kill him already. He watched out of his peripheral vision as the Shihoin kid, well at least the blurry image of him stood next to Jaggerjack and tsked at him, "Oh, it looks like your arm is broken," the bastard paused as he gripped the forearm of Grimmjow's broken arm just below the elbow, "here, let me help you with that."

Jaggerjack howled in pain as the Shihoin bastard forcefully shoved his lower arm up to 'reset the bone' but ended up, quite intentionally Grimmjow was sure, shoving the jagged end of the lower half of his humorous out through his triceps, eliciting an entirely feminine scream from him as the pain registered in his head. Grimmjow was only allowed to scream for a moment before he felt the slightest brush of something against the skin of his throat just below the adam's apple from his left to right. His screams turned into shocked gurgling as a second smile opened up a moment later, spilling his life's blood out of his throat as well as slidding down his throat towards his lungs. Jaggerjack fell into a prayer-like pose on his knees before the Shihoin brat as the blood poured out of his lower smile as well as causing him to down in his own blood...

* * *

 **Tier**

She hadn't known what Kenshin would do after listening to what Kakashi had said, but certainly not the absolutely wanton brutality that she had been witnessing the last several minutes as her knight in a black duster systematically destroyed the team that had hurt her team and her specifically. Tier had initially stunned by not just the display before her, but by his words and as it continued, all she wanted to do was to scream for him to stop, to come back, to be the person that she knew and liked, not the monster before her. She moved to look away but Tiburon's voice stopped her, **"Don't you dare look away, Tia. You need to etch this sight into your memory of what can happen."**

Tier started breaking down as she watched Kenshin continue to tear apart the blue haired samurai that had wanted to rape her, _I can't watch this. This isn't Kenshin. It can't be...how...how could he be this brutal, this bloodthirsty?_

Tiburon scoffed at her, **"Did you learn nothing when that white-haired shinobi told you about the Ryuu no Chiyokubō? Did you seriously not hear a damn word he said about Kenshin's family? You're even more naive than that Kurenai girl."**

Tier responded, _But...I just..._

She suddenly had the mental image of Tiburon raising one eyebrow, anger coloring her voice, **"You just what? You can't accept that this is what Kenshin hides behind his calm exterior? You can't understand why he is fighting the way he is to avenge your honor? For all you claim to like him, maybe even love him, all I've seen is him constantly giving everything he has to you so that you can get stronger and finally feel proud of your strength as the daughter of TWO captains! W** **HAT THE FUCK HAVE YOU GIVEN HIM, HUH? WHAT THE HELL HAVE _YOU_ DONE FOR _HIM?_ **

Tier got the distinct impression that Tiburon was gathering herself before continuing to lay into her, **"Did you once stop to thank him for his kindness in stopping the girls that didn't like the fact that he commented on how pretty your hair was the first day in the academy and wanted to cut it off so that he would think that you were ugly, or in agreeing to work with you on your kidoh after school, or in training with you these last five months? No you haven't. You've taken everything that he has given you for granted and haven't uttered a single word of thanks to him. You don't deserve him."**

Tier gasped as Tiburon's last sentence felt as if a knife blade was driven through her heart. As she watched Kenshin deliver a crushing blow to the mountain-man with his own hammer, she realized that Tiburon was right about her: as she was now, she didn't deserve him.

She watched Kenshin dispatch the pink haired samurai with one of his signature Hiten Mitsurugi techniques as she started to think about what she would need to do to become someone who would deserve Kenshin, because he wasn't some prize that one could win at a contest at some festival, he was someone who deserved a person who could stand beside him, and if need be, protect him from himself. As she started to think along these lines, a blood-curdling scream that was followed by a hiss of released air and a gurgling sound, as if someone was choking on their own blood broke Tier out of her thoughts and refocused her on what was before her as the blue-haired samurai fell to his knees before Kenshin, his blood pouring out of a second smile that was mere fractions of an inch south of his Adam's apple.

Tier watched in horror as Kenshin turned towards her, a blood-drunk and crazed look in his eyes as he continued to pump out the insane amount of bloodlust, his voice sounding unhinged, "Are you happy, Tia? I destroyed those men that hurt you. I destroyed them for you, are you happy?"

She recoiled from him on instinct. Tier watched as the psychotically insane smile fell off of his face and his voice, while still unhinged, became almost childlike in its pouting nature, "Why? Why do you flinch away from me when I destroyed the men that hurt you," then anger colored his reiatsu-infused voice as his reiatsu skyrocketed, black flames dancing along his frame, **"I DID THIS FOR YOU! YOU SHOULD BE HAPPY! I MADE IT SO YOU ARE SAFE FROM THOSE THAT WOULD HAVE HURT YOU! WHY AREN'T YOU HAPPY?!"**...

* * *

 **A/N: Haha, cliffhanger! Tune in next time to find out what happens. I am so evil sometimes, love it!**

 **1\. So, as I said before, I will be doing a Q & A Chapter at the end of every arc in the story that will coincide with the arc that I just finished, so ask your questions and leave your reviews and I will make every attempt to answer them in the Q & A Chapter.**

 **2\. Also, in that Q & A Chapter I will be including essentially what will be a glossary or quick-reference guide to techniques seen in the previous arc so that as the story progresses, you (the wonderful readers) will have something that you can look back at and refresh your memories.**

 **3\. Thanks for reading! Please PM me with questions or leave a review!**


	11. The Second Exam: Acceptance

**A/N: Here's the Final Chapter of the Introduction Arc's Second Exam Mini-Arc... I think. The only reason I say 'I think' is because this mini-arc was supposed to end THREE CHAPTERS AGO! That's it, that's done, it's a wrap, send it to print, and all of those other frilly phrases that directors use to say that they are done with filming some scene in a movie, but nooooo... I get stuck with the proverbial 'Never Ending Story' of mini-arcs. *sighs while looking dejectedly at the computer screen* Sometimes I really hate my overly-active imagination.**

 **1\. Speech/Thoughts Key:**

 **"So, are you planning on ending this mini-arc any time soon or are you planning on making it the entire story?" - Zanpaktou Spirit/Biiju/Summoned Creature Speech**

"Shut up you. No one asked you what you thought about the story, did they?" - Human Speech

 _ **Well, if they had, I would have told a certain someone to have the main character rip the heads off of the bad guys and be done with it.**_ **\- Zanpaktou Spirit/Biiju/Summoned Creature Thoughts**

 _Well, now everyone's a critic. Why don't you at least leave a review then and REALLY let me know what you think!_ \- Human Thoughts

 **2\. So, now that my mini-rant and arugument with Tensuga are over... please read, review, ask questions, and above all else...Enjoy!**

* * *

 **The Second Exam: Acceptance**

* * *

 **Tier**

The world around Tier froze and faded to shades of gray as she watched the spirit of her zanpaktou walk towards her in human form accompanied by what appeared to be a female samurai with wild black hair that fell past her shoulder blades, a timeless and beautiful face, a traditional black-over-white samurai shihakusho under white Edo armor, and her most striking feature: her eyes; the woman had the same void black eyes that featured the silver six bladed stars of the Ryuugami Tengan as Kenshin. The look that the armor wearing woman was giving her sent a chill down Tier's spine, it was a look of pure 'I am a hairs' breadth away from killing you in very imaginative ways because I am so pissed off at you right now' look, and Tier had a very good idea of the reason for that anger.

She watched with trepidation as the two obviously zanpaktou spirits approached her. The two women stopped directly in front of Tier and looked down at her as the armor wearing woman said in a flat voice, **"We need to talk. Now."**

Tier didn't have any say in the matter as Tiburon placed a hand on the shoulder of the armor wearing woman's shoulder and the other on Tier's shoulder and she felt the very familiar twisting sensation in her gut as she was pulled into her inner world and all she saw was darkness...

* * *

 **Kakashi**

Kakashi looked at Tier as her eyelids slid shut and then looked back at where Kenshin was now stalking towards where he and the others were at on the far side of the clearing from where he had been fighting, correction: obliterating the blue-haired samurai and his team while giving in completely into his bloodlust in his rage at the condition in which they had found Tier and her team. As he began calculating the possibility of maybe talking Kenshin down, any thought of that was dashed as he heard Kenshin inquire in the same unhinged and petulant voice as earlier, "Are you the ones that made Tia-chan not happy?"

Kakashi, his voice uncertain, said, "No, why?"

He watched as Kenshin gave him the same childlike psychotic smile that he had given the blue-haired samurai earlier, his voice managing to be both matter-of-factly and childlike as he said, "Because if you were the ones who made Tia-chan sad then I would have to kill you."

Kakashi thought, _shit! Shitshitshitshit! This is so not good, he is completely gone OFF the deep end. What are we go-_ , his train of thought was broken as he saw Kenshin's eyes go past him to where Tier was and he saw the process with which Kenshin took in Tier's current state. Kakashi suddenly felt as if a weight the size of the Hokage Monument was thrown on top of him as he saw the smile disappear from Kenshin's face accompanied by a massive explosion of black fire-like reiatsu that seemed to turn into a massive inferno centered around Kenshin as his voice went from childlike and psychotic to completely calm and wrathful as the reiatsu was crushing Kakashi and the others, "So instead of making her sad, you hurt her. I trusted you as a friend Kakashi and you hurt her."...

* * *

 **Tier**

Tier was screwed and she knew it. As soon as they had reached her inner world, the coral reefs and crystal blue water that was Tiburon's home within her soul, Tier had been set upon by the woman wearing the white Edo armor who was using a pair of pure black zetsurin-style katana that featured white over black hilts, forcing her to defend herself. After deflecting another vicious attack from the white armored woman she asked, "Why are you attacking me instead of trying to help Kenshin?"

The armor clad woman's face twisted from a unreadable mask into a sneer that carried all of the malevolence of an angry goddess as she spat at Tier, **"Don't you dare use _his_ name. You have been nothing but a source of pain for my samurai partner. You are the reason that he is in the state he is right now! You caused this. You getting hurt because you weren't strong enough caused him to get like this. Do you have any idea what this is doing to him right now?"**

Tier wasn't allowed to answer as she had to deflect one of the woman's swords with her own and suddenly felt the familiar brush of metal against her flank as she failed to account for the other sword in the woman's hands. As she used shunpo to separate from the woman so that she could get some space, Tier spat back, "Well, if _he_ would have pushed me harder when we were training then maybe I wouldn't have been in the situation in the first place! Also, I don't even see how our relationship is any of your business!"

As soon as she said it, Tier felt the temperature of the water around her begin to rise as the water around the armor-clad woman began to boil, forming a steam layer that outlined and defined every detail of the woman and the currents around the three of them, yes Tiburon was still there, though the shark bitch wasn't helping much at this point, became incredibly violent. The woman's voice became flat calm as she retorted, **"So you blame him for your shortcomings as a samurai and you don't think that the emotional well being of _my_ samurai partner is any of my concern. You are _so_ not winning any points with me right now." **

Tier narrowed her eyes at the armor-clad woman and said, "Still don't care about fucking winning points with a zanpaktou spirit that is more interested in trying to kick my ass instead of helping _her_ partner. So yeah, you can go fuck yourself."

At that point, Tier heard Tiburon's voice chime in, amusement coloring her words, **"So, you have an angry zanpaktou spirit before you who is literally causing the water to boil around her and who, by the way, is the Empress of Heaven, wants to kill you where you float, and you decide to tell her to 'go fuck herself'. Really smart move Tia."**

Tia's eyes flickered over to where Tiburon was floating, "Well, it's not like her being here to beat me up is doing anything to help the situation, so yeah, she can go fuck herself with her own swords for all I care."

She watched as Tiburon face-palmed, **"Really great, Tia, just continue to antagonize the woman who is literally steaming right now. Why am I stuck with the samurai who likes to poke angry dragons in the eye?"**

Tier said, "Still don't care what she thinks about mine and Kenshin's relationship," she paused for a moment as she turned her attention back to the armor-clad woman that was her opponent, "and yes, I will use his name because, despite what you may think, and I really don't give a damn about that, by the way, I do care for him, deeply."

She watched as the armor-clad woman scoffed at her, **"Obviously not deeply enough or you would have done something to bring him back to himself before now,"** she paused as her face took on an angry sneer, **"you speak of caring for him, yet as soon as you see him at his most vulnerable, you do nothing. You just lay against the base of a tree and feel sorry for yourself as he loses himself to the bloodlust to the point where he no longer recognizes friend from foe. How the fuck is that caring for someone?"**

Tier was at a loss for words as she realized what this whole fight was about: it wasn't about her getting beaten up or cut up for the amusement of some zanpaktou spirit, it was for her to realize her mistake in her inaction about stopping Kenshin's rampage. As she reflected on all of her interactions with Kenshin, Tier saw all of the times that she could have let him know that he meant more to her than just a training partner or comrade-in-arms, that she had deeper feelings for him, and that she was afraid that he would reject those feelings as a silly crush and tell her to turn her attention elsewhere to someone who was worth her time. Her train of thought was broken as the armor-clad woman spoke again, **"Now do you see how your fear at admitting how you feel about him has left him unbalanced emotionally?"**

Tier, not trusting herself to speak, nodded silently. She watched as the armor-clad woman, seriously she was going to have to learn the woman's name, continued, **"Do you know the names of the two blades that Kenshin carries?"**

Tier shook her head, "No, I don't. How could I know the names of the swords he carries if I've never seen them before?"

The armor-clad woman gave Tier a stern look, **"They are named Honor and Sacrifice. The blades represent Kenshin's will to be strong enough to sacrifice everything he has to protect those he holds dear, even if it leads to the loss of his own humanity. For Kenshin, sacrificing himself in such a manner is the height of honor, as it should be for all samurai."**

Tier wasn't even given a moment to process what the armor-clad woman had said before she was being attacked again. She brought her sword up and deflected the descending blade that the armor-clad woman was bringing down in a powerful overhead slash, but as she deflected the blade, Tier felt the woman's other sword bite into the skin on her flank just over her rib cage. As she spun to counter, Tier caught a powerful kick in the stomach that blasted the air from her lungs and sent her flying backwards into a coral formation, the coral opening several small cuts all over her back as it tore through her clothing as it crumpled beneath her before she was stopped by the hard stone at the base of the formation. Tier was about to attempt to extract herself from the coral when the tip of one of the armor-clad woman's black swords stopped mere inches from her throat, close enough for Tier to feel the heat radiating from the sword. When her eyes followed the sword back along it's blade to the person holding it, she found a familiar unreadable mask fitted over her attacker's face as she said in the same calm, even tone that she had used at the beginning of their fight, well not really a fight so much as her beating Tier down, **"So, you have to ask yourself: Could you sacrifice yourself to keep him safe, or are you a spoiled little bitch that doesn't know what it means to be in a relationship?"...**

* * *

 **A Few Hours Later**

 **Kakashi**

Kakashi, his team, and the badly injured team three arrived at the tower in the center of the forest just as the moon began to rise in the east. As they entered the corridor that led to the rooms set aside for the teams that made it through the forest, the group noticed several medic-nin and medically trained samurai from the hospital on standby, including none other than the Slug Sannin and Commander of the Hospital Corps, Lady Tsunade Senju and her co-commander, Taichou Retsu Shihoin. The medics immediately took the members of team three away, escorted by their own mentor, Retsu-taichou, as well as Lady Tsunade herself, who spared a glance at the unconscious form of Kenshin, who was lying across Kakashi's back, and inquired, "What's wrong with Kenshin?"

Kakashi opened his mouth to speak, but before he could answer, a deep growling voice answered from directly behind Kakashi as he felt Kenshin's unconscious weight being lifted off of his back, "Nothing that requires your tender care, Tsunade-sama."

Kakashi and the rest of team seventy-eight spun to see the massive figure of the proctor of the second exam himself, Kenpachi Shihoin, who had slung the unconscious form of Kenshin over his shoulder before continuing, "In fact, it's probably best that the rest of you go into the room designated for you so that you can open your scrolls while I see to my son's needs for now. I will let you know when it is safe to be around Kenshin."

Kakashi heard Asuma ask from beside him, "Does that mean that he completed the second exam as well, or was he disqualified?"

All of them heard Kenpachi's growling chuckle, "No, he passed with the rest of you, but due to his current state, my son is not fit to be around the lot of you runts, unless all of you want to end up dead?"

As he had finished that last sentence, Kakashi and the others had felt the killer intent that began rolling off of Kenpachi-taichou. Kakashi was quick to answer for the group, "No, Kenpachi-taichou, we are very much attached to our lives as they are and would truly wish to avoid any situation that would involve us being disfigured or maimed in anyway, shape, or form, including death. We just ask out of concern for our friend."

Kakashi watched as Kenpachi-taichou chuckled at the lot of them, "Good, now let me go see to my son while you runts go open the scrolls that you are carrying. Your room is the fourth door on the left."

Hatake caught the two scrolls that Kenpachi-taichou had tossed to him, the very same scrolls that had been in Kenshin's equipment pouch, as he and the rest of team seventy-eight watched as Kenpachi-taichou disappeared in shunpo with their friend slung over his shoulder still.

Once the three of them were in the designated room, which had really been the eighth door on the right, as there had been a written sign with their team number on it hanging on said door, Kakashi pulled the two scrolls out of one of his equipment pouches, opened both scrolls and laid them on the floor with the Earth scroll under the Heaven scroll. As soon as he stepped back, there was a poof of white smoke and when the smoke cleared, both Inoichi-and Minato-sensei were standing in front of Kenshin and his team, both wearing big smiles.

Minato-sensei was the first to speak, "Congratulations to the four of you for making it through the first two exams. Also, congratulations for being the team to make it through the fastest," just then Kakashi watched as Minato-sensei looked them over, "wait, where's Kenshin?"

Asuma answered from Kakashi's right, "He was taken away by his dad as soon as we got to the tower."

Inoichi-sensei spoke, "And we don't mean just the fastest of this group of genin, we mean ever."

Rangiku spoke up from where she was sitting on one of the cots, "Well, you can thank Asuma for that; he drove us mercilessly from the time we fought against that team of Kumo samurai to the time that we arrived here."

Asuma looked over at her, "It wasn't really that hard of a pace, was it?"

Kakashi shook his head as he was sitting on one of the cots across the room from Rangiku, "No, it wasn't that difficult of a pace to keep up with. At least, I didn't think it was."

Rangiku stared daggers at Kakashi, "Weren't you the one who was crying for a break a couple of hours ago? At least, that's what I heard, how about you Asuma?"

Asuma smiled, "Yep, Kakashi was the only one asking for a break at all."

Kakashi turned to look at Asuma, who was sitting on the cot to his left, and narrowed his eyes as a scowl took shape across his features, "Aren't you supposed to be on my side?"

Asuma replied with false innocence, "I am on the side of truth, Kakashi-san. So in this case, I will not lie."

Rangiku watched as it was Kakashi's turn to stare daggers at Asuma, "'In this case', some friend you turned out to be."

Asuma replied with false indignation in his voice, "Why, Kakashi-san, I am your friend. I would be wounded if you were to think that I was not."

Just then, the doors at the opposite end of the room, the same doors that Kakashi and his team, minus Kenshin, had entered through, opened and the rest of their teammates came into the room…

* * *

 **Rin**

Rin followed the others into the room where Kakashi and the others were going to be staying until the time limit was up in four and a half days. As the others greeted the four of them, Rin's eyes were focused only on Kakashi as she moved around the gathering group to arrive at Kakashi's side, threading her hand and fingers in with his own. She felt him give her hand a squeeze as they focused on the conversation developing as Asuma, Rangiku, and Kenshin told the rest of their combined teams about the first two exams. Rin felt that everything was right with the world, Kakashi had made it through the first two exams safe and unharmed, and now she got to spend the rest of the time until the time limit expired on the second exam. She frowned for a moment as she felt someone's eyes on her and the feeling that those eyes were giving her was nothing short of sinister...

* * *

 **Obito**

Obito Uchiha saw how easy it was for Rin to move over next to Kakashi and take his hand as if the two of them did that all the time. Of course, based on what he had heard around the village, Rin and Kakashi had started dating a few weeks ago. All he could feel was anger towards the other male shinobi on his team for stealing and beguiling _his_ Rin Nohara. Obito couldn't understand how someone so cold as Kakashi could have made such an impression on Rin. His thoughts turned along those same lines, madness threatening his sanity, _haven't I done everything for her. Who was always there for Rin when Kakashi would just simply walk away after training? Me. Who always helped her on our missions? Me. Who truly loves her? Me! So why the hell was I ignored in favor for that cold, black eyed bastard of a traitor! I am the better shinobi by far! I should have been the one in the exams and not him!_

As Obito's mind continued down that same line of thinking, he turned and walked out of the room; his mind already beginning to plot all kinds of ways for him to get back at the silver haired shinobi on his team for taking his Rin away from him...

* * *

 **A Couple of Hours Later**

 **Kenshin**

Kenshin regained consciousness seemingly in stages. The first thing that he noticed was the fact that every part of his body hurt as if he had gone ten rounds with Soi Fon while she was using Shunko (Flash Cry), Minato-sensei, Urahara-sensei, Hiashi-sensei, his Kaa-san, and his Tou-san, all at the same time and had been on the receiving end of an all-too-thorough beat down. The second thing that he notice was, on top of the whole body physical pain, he had a tenryuu-sized headache building and a dull ache in the back of his neck, as if he had recently been hit there hard enough to render him unconscious. The next he noticed was the sound of multiple voices talking near where he was lying on his stomach upon what felt vaguely like a cot with some standard-issue blankets tossed on it, he could tell they were the standard-issue blankets without seeing them because they were made of the most damned uncomfortable wool that the supply department of the Konohagakure forces could find, but the voices were muffled as if he was hearing them through a wall or something. That set of alarm bells in his head for a moment until Kenshin realized that he recognized all of the chakra and reiatsu signatures coming from the next room as well as the massive one that was in very close proximity to where he was lying on the cot.

After he felt like he had gotten as much information as he was going to with his eyes shut, and he really wished that those people in the next room, friends/family though they may be, would really keep their fucking voices down and stop making his 'a fucking dragon is playing hackey-sack with my head' headache worse, Kenshin took a deep breath and cracked his eyes open, instantly regretting the decision to do so as his senses were assaulted by the unrelenting artificial light flooding the room from the ceiling-mounted fixtures. Okay, his eyes were item one-fifty-one on the 'things that hurt on my body' list. He waited a moment or two to allow his eyes to adjust to the unforgiving artificial light before fully opening them to take in his surroundings, well the wall that was only a few inches from his face anyway.

The Shihoin heir slowly turned over to where he was lying on his back, instantly recognizing with another momentary alarm going off in his head, that Tensuga was no longer strapped to his back and that he was no longer wearing his duster, armor, or boots. Great, so wherever he was, his own family and friends, if he could call them that, had decided to take away his weapons in case he was still on his bloodlust kick, didn't anyone trust him at all? After all, he was in an unmarked room in a structure that he didn't recog-...wait a sec, why the hell was he in a room and where the fuck was this building? The last thing he remembered...

At this realization, Kenshin bolted upright into a seating position on the cot, instantly regretting doing so as his vision started spinning while the contents of his stomach were staging an all out assault on his throat in an attempt to see the light of day again. As he was valiantly fighting what could end up being a losing battle with his previously consumed meal, whenever the hell that was, Kenshin heard a sound that he would recognize anywhere: a small bell ringing. Kenshin froze for a moment before turning his attention towards the only other occupant of the room, a man whose stature and appearance were matched by his reputation: his father, Kenpachi Shihoin...

* * *

 **Kenpachi**

As soon as Kenpachi had heard what had happened in the forest from the combined team seventy-eight and the two members of team three that were still ambulatory, as well as taking in the sight of an unconscious Kenshin being supported by Kakashi and Asuma, he knew what he had to do to take of his son, whose reiatsu still bore signs of the Ryuu no Chiyokubō, even though he was unconscious at the moment. He and Retsu, after she had made sure that Shizune was receiving the proper medical attention, had set about removing their son's armor and weapons and handing all of them, save his sheathed zanpaktou, over to Minato for safe keeping while Kenshin recovered. Kenpachi had immediately asked Minato, Inoichi, and his wife, Retsu take the rest of their teams into the room next to the one where they may wait until he gave them the okay. Not that he thought that Retsu couldn't handle it, after all she had been there for him when he had fallen into the same condition over the years, but she hadn't been there for the first time that he had fallen to the Ryuu no Chiyokubō, that had been the responsibility of his father to get him through the 'hangover' that followed his first fall.

The hangover effect that occurs after a member of the clan fell into the Ryuu no Chiyokubō increased exponentially based on two factors: first, how long were they using the added power; and second, how deeply did that member give into the bloodlust. From what the others had told Kenpachi, his son had fallen so deeply into the Ryuu no Chiyokubō that he no longer recognized friend from foe and had been in that state for over ten minutes before being rendered unconscious by the combined efforts of his teammates. Simple translation: this hangover was going to be a bitch for his son. Fortunately, Kenpachi had thought ahead and had some habu sake brought to the room that he was now sitting in with his unconscious son.

As he sat vigil over Kenshin, Kenpachi considered what course of action to take in regards to his son's condition. The first possibility was to have his son perform meditation exercises for the next day or two, but where was the fun in that? Kenpachi would much rather take option B, beat the living crap out of his son in a sparring match until Kenshin had his head on straight again...

* * *

 **Later That Night**

 **Zabuza**

Zabuza had watched out the corner of his eye as Kenshin and his team disappeared into the forest in the direction of the tower at the center of the forest. That had been almost six hours ago and the time had not been wasted in his opinion. After they had disappeared, Zabuza had thought on what Kenshin had said about the whole mission that he and his team had been assigned and had just realized after over five hours of kneeling where he was held by the binding spell that the person that hired his team had to be someone fairly high placed in Konoha and not someone from the Rock Village as they had been led to believe when he heard someone who was practiced in the arts of stealth land on the ground at the edge of the forest and begin to approach him. The figure came into Zabuza's peripheral vision and moved close to Zabuza. He immediately noticed that the person standing over him with a disgusted look on his face was none other than the shinobi that had handed Zabuza the map before his team had entered the forest. The shinobi spoke, his voice dripping with derision, "Go figure a bunch of useless backwater barbarians pretending to be shinobi couldn't take down one little kid when he was all but tied up and served to you on a silver platter. I wonder how Lord Orochimaru will react when I tell him that his little plan failed, as I knew it would."

Zabuza kept silent and still, hopefully leading the Konoha shinobi to believe that he was neither healed enough nor had regained control over his body to do anything about the ninja's presence as the Konoha shinobi, who just wouldn't shut up, continued his rant about how useless outside help was and how, if he had been allowed the honor of executing the kill order, he wouldn't have missed his target the way that the 'Blood Mist Two-bit Hacks' had. Zabuza slowly readied his body for the strike as Mr. Loudmouth continued to talk about how useless it was for someone of Orochimaru-sama's position to rely on outside help to deal with village problems, as he thought, _that's it. Don't mind me, I'm just bound here by a kidoh that is also slowly healing me. Oh, and by the way, as soon as this kidoh is weak enough, I'm going to cut you in half, Mr. Loudmouth_.

Finally Zabuza felt like he had enough freedom of movement just as the man came unknowingly into his range and said as he rose to his feet and swung his sword, "You talk too much."…

* * *

 **A Little While Later**

 **Loudmouth Shinobi**

As he emerged from the forest with the bodies of the mist ninja that had been sent sealed inside of the scrolls that he carried in holsters on his belt, Mr. Loudmouth exited the gate that was held open by another of the chuunin proctors for the exams who looked at him and said, "Hey Mizuke, did you find out what that huge explosion of reiatsu this afternoon was? That shit really freaked me the fuck out. Just the way it felt was terrifying."

The man openly shuddered as he looked to the newly-identified Mizuke for an answer. It took Mizuke a moment to realize that the other shinobi was talking to him, let alone waiting for an answer from him. Mizuke took a moment longer to collect his thoughts before replying, "That reiatsu was the Shihoin heir receiving the true form of his shikai. I watched it happen up close," _and personal_ , he thought as he continued, "as he tore apart two of the Kiri shinobi and a team of Kumo samurai who had tried to rape the members of another of our teams without even breaking a sweat," Mizuke paused for a moment, shaking his head and repressing a shudder as if memories of the black-clad samurai with the twin zetsurin katana carving his way through the Kiri shinobi and Kumo samurai had truly terrified him, though he had added on the Kumo part as a bit of flare because it felt like something Kenshin would do to protect others, "Man, remind me never to get on that kid's bad side; I don't think that I would live through it."

Mizuke watched as his 'buddy' nodded in response before continuing, "Anyway, I need to get back to standing 'Guard Duty' at this gate, so drinks later?"

Mizuke gave the man a winning smile as he said, "Sure and you can regale me with the tales of all of the genin that came out crying for their mommies."

He watched as his 'friend' gave an enthusiastic nod and he almost missed the blush that crossed the man's cheeks at his offer. Okay, he was definitely getting out of here before he had this fag in front of him jump his bones. Mizuke spoke as he started to walk away, "See you around. I have to go write a report on what I saw in there."

He watched as the other shinobi nodded enthusiastically and said brightly, "See you tonight, Mizuke-kun."

Mizuke turned away while repressing a violent shudder at the thought of being in the vicinity of this gay shinobi a moment longer, _so not going to see you later, fag_. He hurried his steps towards the village gates without making it look like he was in as much of a hurry as he was to get away. As soon as he was out of sight, Mizuke disappeared in Mizu Shunshin and began the long trek out of Fire Country and towards his home in Water Country. When he was certain that he was far enough away from Konohagakure, 'Mizuke' dropped his henge no jutsu (transformation technique) and continued on his way in his true form...

* * *

 **A/N: Sorry for the long wait between updates, but with work and everything else going on... I kind of lost track of time. Next update should come out a lot faster than this one did. 'Til next time.**


	12. The Dragon and the Cherry Blossom

**A/N: Well, here's another chapter, as always: enjoy!**

 **1\. Speech/Thoughts Key:**

 **"So how the hell are you going to get out of this one?" - Zanpaktou Spirit/Biiju/Summoned Creature Speech**

 _ **Oh, so that's how you're getting out of this, well... that is an interesting idea... not what I would have done, but okay.**_ **\- Zanpaktou Spirit/Biiju/Summoned Creature Thoughts**

"Is that a problem, after all, it worked, didn't it?" - Human Speech

 _Maybe not the way I was intending, but hey...who's to argue with results? -_ Human Thoughts

 **2\. In no way, shape, or form am I lucky enough to own Bleach, Naruto, Naruto Shippuuden, or Rurouni Kenshin.**

 **Enjoy, and as always: review, ask questions, and so on and so forth!**

* * *

 **The Dragon and the Cherry Blossom**

* * *

 **Four Days Later**

 **Byakuya**

Byakuya and his team had arrived at the tower in the middle of the second day, a full day after the Shihoin kid and his team, which truly annoyed Kuchiki a great deal. Now, a full three days later and just after the time limit had expired, Kuchiki, his team, and nineteen other teams, including the Shihoin kid's team, were standing in rows in the middle of a large room that had a raised dais at the end that all of them were facing with a large statue that was shaped like the Konoha Will of Fire statue that represented the spirit of all samurai and shinobi born in the village. Byakuya's gaze again drifted towards the Shihoin kid when movement at the front of the room caught his attention as the Sandaime Hokage came into the room followed by the two Shihoin captains, the sensei for all of the teams that had made it to this point in the exams, as well as a few other genin and unranked samurai who were held out of the exams but had teammates who had been allowed to compete.

The Hokage spoke, "Good morning and congratulations to all of you for making it this far in the exams. As you should have realized by now, the first exam was all about how well you could discretely gather intelligence from available sources while the second was about how well you could follow orders as well as a test of how well you worked together in teams. Now the final exam is all about individual combat prowess. Now the actual tournament will occur in a month, however, because more of you made it through the forest than anticipated, we will have to have preliminary matches that will begin as soon as your proctor has told you of the rules regarding the matches," he then looked at the man who came in with the other proctors, "Yoshio Abe, please take charge."

The man, who wore the standard Konoha shinobi with his hitai-ate tied in its normal place on his forehead below a mop of dark brown hair, over black eyes and plain features, stepped forward, his appraising coal-black eyes sweeping over Byakuya and all of the others standing in ranks to either side and behind of Byakuya, and when he spoke, it was in a deep and gravely voice, "As the Hokage-sama said, this part of the exams is to test how well each of you perform in single combat. Since there are more than sixty of you who have made it through the forest, congratulations on that by the way, we have to cut that number at least in half for the final tournament in a month. Just so you know, you may have to fight your own teammate during this, either here in the prelims or in the finals. So, if there are any of you who feel that you cannot fight, for any reason, please step out of the ranks and go join your mentors on the balconies to either side. Just know that if you leave now, you will not be able to participate in the final part of the exams."

Byakuya looked around as about ten kids left to go join their mentors. Byakuya's attention was again directed at Yoshio-sensei as he smiled an almost predatory smile at everyone who remained in the ranks, "Well, at least we have a few honest people in the crowd. Now, for the rest of you, the rules: First, you can go all out and use all of your abilities and tools, just know that I will step in and stop any blow that I determine to be a lethal blow against an opponent that is obviously incapable of fighting back. Second, if any of the other instructors in here intervene on behalf of one of the fighters, the match is immediately over and that genin is eliminated from the tournament. Other than that, have fun and fight hard. Now, everyone look up to the big display board for the first match participants."

Byakuya and all of the others watched as the lights on the board flashed names too fast for Byakuya to catch any of them until the first set of lights stopped, and he felt a jolt run through him as he saw his name being displayed while the other half of the lights were still flashing names too fast for him to see. He was fighting first, that was good for him, it meant that he would have the most time to evaluate his competition, but looking around him at the other samurai, he didn't think that that would be the case, after all none of them looked powerful enough to fight him. His musings were cut off as he heard a collective gasp from all of the Konoha shinobi and samurai in the room so his eyes shot back to the board which said 'Byakuya Kuchiki vs. Kenshin Shihoin'.

If Byakuya didn't have the self control that he did, his jaw would have been on the floor: fighting Kenshin in the very first fight, no way, there has to be a mistake. Then he thought about it, _this would allow me the perfect opportunity to prove to everyone just how weak the Shihoin line really is with all of their talk about 'strength'. Now I can show them that the Kuchiki Clan truly is the superior clan of samurai in the village, nay, the country._

Byakuya turned to face Kenshin as all of the other contestants moved towards the balconies that lined either side of the room and were accessed by stairs that where on the ends closest to the statue at the front of the room. It was then that Byakuya noticed that Kenshin didn't have his otachi shaped zanpaktou strapped to his back anymore and instead had a pair of white-over-black hilted zetsurin sheathed in a double-wide bandoleer that encircled the boy from right shoulder to left hip. That was also when Byakuya noticed that the reiatsu of the black duster clad samurai in front of him felt a lot smaller than it did before, as if he had lost his zanpaktou. Byakuya sneered at the Shihoin brat and said to the proctor as he stepped between them, "Sensei, how can he fight when he has lost his zanpaktou, shouldn't that by law disqualify him?"

The brat spoke before the proctor could say anything, "Who says that I have lost my zanpaktou? What's wrong Kuchiki, afraid to lose to a filthy Shihoin?"

Byakuya felt the anger boil up inside of him and spat back, his voice dripping acid, "As if, I will never lose to you or any other Shihoin. I will prove that the Kuchiki Clan is superior."

Byakuya grew even angrier as Kenshin gave him a winning smile, "Then why try to have me disqualified? Or, do the Kuchiki have to stoop to trying to get their opponents disqualified to claim a victory?"

Before Byakuya could respond the proctor stepped directly between them, "That's enough, you two!"

A couple of minutes passed before Byakuya could bring himself under enough control to not kill the Shihoin brat outright. When the proctor was satisfied, he stepped back, still standing halfway between the two of them, but off to their left a couple of paces so that he would not be in the direct line of fire when the match started. Before the proctor could say anything else, the Shihoin brat spoke up again, "Sensei, I think we should move this fight outside."

The proctor and everyone else in the room looked at the Shihoin brat as the proctor asked, "Why is that, Kenshin?"

The Shihoin brat spoke again, "Because Sensei, I don't think that you or the Sandaime want Kuchiki and myself to bring the building down on top of everyone here."

Kuchiki scoffed, "As if you could do anything more than scratch the wall with how small your reiatsu is now that you have lost your zanpaktou."

The Shihoin brat turned his attention back to Byakuya, a frown crossing his face, "Again, why do you assume that I have lost my zanpaktou?"

Byakuya spoke with an authoritative tone, as if it was obvious to everyone except the child that he was trying to explain it to, "Because, the shape of your zanpaktou has reverted to it's original unawakened state, hence the pair of plain katana on your back, the fact that your reiatsu is far smaller than the last time I saw you, and the fact that you are a Shihoin," he then turned his attention to the proctor, "grant him his choice of battlefield, after all it will not matter. The fight will be over in a few minutes."

The proctor spoke again, annoyance coloring his voice, "If you two are done measuring dick sizes, I would like to speak."

Byakuya bit back the reprimand he had ready and waited for the proctor to speak again, "I have decided to move your fight outside per Kenshin's request and the Hokage's okay."

Byakuya saw the Hokage give the proctor a small nod and the proctor returning the nod. After a moment, Byakuya watched as the proctor looked from him to the Shihoin brat, then to everyone on the balconies on either side of the arena as if considering where in the forest the fight should be moved to so that everyone could watch. A few seconds later the proctor spoke aloud, "Alright, everyone we are moving this fight to a clearing a couple hundred yards south of here that should be large enough for these two to go at it."...

* * *

 **A Few Minutes Later**

 **Byakuya**

After everyone had arrived at the clearing and the spectators had arranged themselves in the trees along either of the long sides of the large clearing that was several hundred yards long by a couple hundred wide, Byakuya was standing across from the Shihoin brat in the center of the clearing while the proctor was off discussing something with the Sandaime Hokage. Byakuya wished that the proctor would hurry up and start the fight already so that he could crush the Shihoin brat and get this over with.

The Shihoin brat spoke for the first time since they had moved outside, causing Byakuya's attention to be drawn back to him, "You know, you should really learn to be patient with those of us you see as 'inferior' to you. After all, how can you expect us to live up to the _great_ Byakuya Kuchiki? Maybe you should tell him to beg for forgiveness for delaying the match so long when he gets back over here."

Byakuya looked at the Shihoin brat as if he were something to be scraped off of a sandal, "Just because I come from a superior and pure samurai bloodline is no reason to try to put on airs as if you are my equal."

He saw one corner of the Shihoin brat's mouth quark up into a half smile as he chuckled, "You're right, I don't come from a quote-unquote "Pure" bloodline, but you know what? I am proud of that bloodline that leads from the founder of my clan and is unbroken all the way to me. I wish you knew how that felt. Oh, and by the way, we are equals."

Byakuya felt anger shoot through him as an electric current and his left hand unconsciously tightened around the throat of his zanpaktou's sheathe, his knuckles turning white, his voice acid as he spat, "Equals? You dare to consider us equals when your mother was so low borne as to be the only samurai born into a family of shinobi and your father, a lord and head of a samurai clan in his own right, stoops to call men such as Shunsui Kyoraku, Kisuke Urahara, and Junshiro Ukitake friends instead of traveling society in the company of those of the same rank..."

He lost his train of thought as the Shihoin brat was obviously trying very hard to hold back a fit of laughter that was causing his body to shake with mirth and stoking the flames of Byakuya's anger even more, "Did I say something funny?"

He was kept waiting a moment as the Shihoin brat fought to regain some semblance of control over himself. Once he did, the Shihoin brat spoke, "Why shouldn't my father be friends with Kyoraku-taichou, Urahara-sensei, and Ukitake-taichou? After all, they were on the same team when they were our ages, they were all promoted to captain at the same time, and all four of them bear that rank even now, so again, why shouldn't they be friends? Is this your flimsy-as-rice paper way of trying to say that my father is slumming it with three fellow captains? I don't see that as slumming, I see it as the fact that my father has gathered good people around him; all five of them, my parents included, are loyal to each other and are willing to lay their own lives on the line to protect one another and their subordinates as well as the village. Can your father say the same with the crowd of simpering knaves he socializes with, each of them always looking for a way to make themselves appear better than their supposed 'friends' in front of the village elders and are always looking for ways to put others down?"

Byakuya answered, "Each of them seek to further the wealth and prestige of their clans. The method matters not. If we have to stand on the backs of lesser samurai so that we may rise to the heights that our clans should be, what's it matter who we hurt?"

The Shihoin brat frowned at him, disappointment coloring his voice, "Is that really how you quote-unquote social elite think? So, if that is the case," he paused seemingly for effect, "how does you marrying Rangiku factor into that philosophy?"

Byakuya answered matter-of-factly with a flippant tone, as if the answer should have been obvious to the Shihoin brat, "My marriage to Rangiku is the exception that proves the rule of our clan's marrying high borne samurai. I fully expect that our children will not possess one-fifth of the natural talent that I possess."

The Shihoin brat scoffed at that, "So, you would marry someone who, by your own words, is of such inferior bloodline that you expect your kids to be stupid just to follow your father's wishes. I could never do that."

Byakuya gave him a cold smile, "And that is why your clan will always be considered inferior to my own."

The Shihoin brat answered his smile with a predatory smile of his own, one that slightly unnerved the Kuchiki heir, though he would never admit it, "So if my clan is as inferior to your own as you claim it to be, does that mean that this fight is already decided?"

Byakuya said, "Yes it is: you will lose and I will prove once and for all that the Kuchiki Clan is superior to the gutter trash and harlots that comprise your clan that has been surviving on nothing but its name."

Byakuya watched as the Shihoin brat's mirth vanished from his voice, eyes, and smile as he inquired, "So what happens when I defeat you while you are using your bankai?"…

* * *

 **Tier**

Tier shifted her weight from one foot to the other and leaned against the trunk of the tree that she and the rest of her team as well as the combined teams seven and eight were standing in. As they stood there waiting for the match to start, Tier looked down at Kenshin, studying him. Four and a half days ago, before she and her team had met up with Kenshin and the others from the combined teams seven and eight that had entered the exams, before he had singlehandedly slaughtered a team of Kumo samurai to protect her, she would have thought that she that she knew Kenshin, but after their teams had met up, she realized how little she actually knew about him. It all started when she had offered to spar with him after he had spent a day and a half locked away with his father in one of the sparring rooms in the tower and had come out much calmer, and he had said that he was concerned that if she pushed herself too hard after how injured she had been following the fight to protect her team that she wouldn't be able to fight in the third part of the exams. She thought that it was kinda cute that he had forgotten that her team had been eliminated because of their failure to gather the requesite scrolls and arrive at the tower without being beaten to a bloody pulp.

Tier had never seen that side of Kenshin before, the gentle and considerate side that he always kept hidden away behind the calm exterior that kept all except those who knew him best, Kakashi and his family, at arm's length. Even during all of their time training together before the exams, Tier had never seen any evidence of that softer side, always working with Kenshin the Warrior. She had only ever seen that psychotic smile that he wore whenever he went into that battle frenzy that his clan was known for during their more intense training sessions, but over the last couple of days she had caught glimpses of a far softer smile, a smile that she had seen when he thought that she wasn't looking at him or when she had said something funny or when he was poking fun at her about something she had said. Tier didn't know why, but she wanted to see that side of him far more often in the future.

Movement to her right caused Tier to break off her examination of Kenshin. She turned her head and was about to straighten and bow to the person she saw there but Retsu-sensei shook her head, "Formal greetings aren't necessary at the moment, Tia. So, what do you think of my son?"

Tier wasn't surprised by the question and gave her the truth, "Retsu-sensei, I had not expected your son to be a gentle person, after only ever seeing the fighter part of him during our training sessions and what he did in the forest to protect our team," she paused as she looked back at Kenshin, "I had no idea that he possessed the gentle kindness that he has shown me over the last two days under the warrior's exterior that he always seems to show everyone."

She saw Retsu-sensei give her a knowing smile and a small nod, "Kenshin, for all his posturing as a hardened samurai who is ready to fight, kill, and die for his village, really is a gentle soul that abhors needless violence, even on missions he exerts only the force necessary to defeat his opponent, only killing when it is completely unavoidable."

Tier nodded, "I have heard of him sparing enemies that he was fighting during missions on a few occasions. I never thought about it and I had always heard other samurai say it was because Kenshin was weak that he spared the lives of our village's enemies."

Retsu-sensei gave her an even bigger smile, "Kenshin is very different from his father and me in that he doesn't take a life unless it is absolutely necessary for the defense of the village or his team. He always comes home after the particularly hard missions, the ones where he did have to take the lives of the enemies that his team faced, with darkness in him, a brooding silence that made most of the clan want to avoid him. When he comes home like that, he always takes his now-sister, Soi Fon, out for some fun so that they can spend time together so that he can find a measure of peace with what he had done and come down off of the bloodlust that is always just under the surface."

Tier looked at Retsu-sensei, "I saw him fall to the Ryuu no Chiyokubō in the forest and I was powerless to do anything to help him."

Retsu-sensei nodded her understanding as she continued, "That is not a surprise, our clan's Battle Psychosis has an unfortunate side effect: a nearly insatiable bloodlust that can cause us to lose ourselves and become nothing more than naked swords to be pointed at the enemy. It is known as Ryuu no Chiyokubō, The Dragon's Bloodlust, and in the case of my son, his is far more potent than even mine or his father's because of who the spirit of his zanpaktou is.

"To combat the Ryuu no Chiyokubō, we do not tell members of our clan who they can or cannot fall in love with, hence Kenshin's father marrying outside the clan to marry me. We only tell them that the person has to be able to bring them back from that emotional abyss that the bloodlust can put them in and get them to reconnect emotionally with those around them. In other words, that person has to be their light in the darkness, their safe harbor in the storm that is the emotional high of the Battle Psychosis, in essence: their emotional sheath, for an unsheathed sword becomes dull and rusty."

Tier frowned behind the high collar of her white half jacket as she thought about what Retsu-sensei had said, what she had seen during his battle against the Kumo samurai team, the lesson that had been beaten into her head by Tensuga, and was about answer when she saw the proctor moving back to where Kenshin and Byakuya were waiting…

* * *

 **Byakuya**

Byakuya was still stunned into silence by the Shihoin brat's latest question when he saw Abe-sensei approaching. He could feel the anger rising inside of him, his thoughts turning dark, _I am going to enjoy breaking him_.

Motion to his right caught his attention, Abe-sensei arriving to start the match. The sensei looked between the two of them, "Now, the rules are as I said they were inside: any killing blow will be stopped by myself or one of the other sensei. The boundaries for the purpose of the match will be the tree line forming the edges of the clearing," he took a moment to look between the two of them, "Any objections?"

Byakuya watched as the Shihoin brat shook his head, "No sensei."

As the proctor turned to him, Byakuya shook his head, "No."

Byakuya took a bit of satisfaction in the flicker of annoyance he saw in the sensei's eyes at his ignoring of the most simple sign of respect towards the proctor. The proctor said in his gruff voice, "Very well."

He raised one of his hands up in the air over his head and said as he brought it down, "Fight."

Byakuya immediately went into shunpo, causing the world around him to almost appear to be standing still, to try to get behind the Shihoin brat and end the fight in one move, the Senka (Flash Blossom). As he moved behind the Shihoin brat, there was a sudden blur of movement in front of him and stars exploded in his vision as Byakuya was sent flying sideways to land hard several feet away and slide on the ground, dirtying his shihakusho. Byakuya quickly regained his feet and stared back at the Shihoin brat, who was standing there as if nothing had happened except for the fact he had turned to face where Byakuya had landed. He looked at Byakuya with a bored expression as he scratched his left cheek with the thumb of his left hand with his fingers half curled next to his mouth as he said, his voice thick with sarcasm, "Hey, Kuchiki-sama, I think you have something on your pretty face."

As the boy said this, Byakuya suddenly felt something wet on the left side of his face. He curiously brought his left hand up and had to bite back a gasp of pain as he touched the side of his face just below his left eye, causing tears to spring to his eyes and his vision to go blurry and double for a moment. Byakuya felt broken bones grind against each other under his skin and a sticky wetness there and as he brought his hand away, curious, all he saw on his hand was the crimson of his own blood. He was astonished, _how the hell did that happen?_

Byakuya replayed the attack in his mind, he had begun to execute the Senka perfectly and he knew that no one their age could match his shunpo, so what happened? How did he end up with his cheek torn and flying several feet before landing and sliding a few more feet?

As he was pondering this, he heard a mirthless chuckle emanating from his opponent, "Let me guess: you're trying to figure out what the hell just happened to you. The reason you're thinking that is because you don't think that anyone our age is as fast as you are in shunpo. Me being faster than you has to be a fluke, right?" he paused for a moment as he spread his arms wide, "after all, you are the heir of the Kuchiki Clan, the most powerful clan of samurai in the Fire Country," and then adding as an after thought, his voice taunting, "isn't that right, Kuchiki-sama?"

Byakuya stared daggers at the Shihoin brat, "Are you mocking me?"

He watched as the Shihoin brat's face broke into a mocking grin, "Mocking you, nooooo. Why would I, a lowly Shihoin, be mocking you, the heir of the Kuchiki Clan?"

Uncontrollable rage colored Byakuya's vision red. His voice was full of ice as he spoke, "I wanted to go easy on you so that maybe you could save some honor, but now I am going to break you."

With that, Byakuya cut loose with his reiatsu, the pressure forcing many around edges of the forest, many of the samurai lieutenants included, to their knees as the air and ground vibrated under the weight. Surprisingly enough, the Shihoin brat wasn't forced to his knees along with the many others who were. Byakuya smiled at the look of surprise on the Shihoin brat's face at the pressure his reiatsu was exerting.

That triumph that he felt turned to something that Byakuya could feel twisting in his stomach but had no name for as he watched the Shihoin brat slowly reach for and draw one of the blades strapped to his back, revealing a pure black blade with the kanji character for 'Honor' engraved into the blade just above the throat and glowing with an inner white light as a slightly psychotic smile turned the brat's features sinister as he spoke in a quiet and icy voice that cut straight through the rumbling thunder of Byakuya's reiatsu, "I must complement you on the weight of your reiatsu, Byakuya-san. You have many of the lieutenants present on their knees and almost everyone here watching our fight is having a difficult time breathing under the pressure your reiatsu is exerting."

Byakuya frowned, "So, why isn't this amount of reiatsu forcing you to your knees since you are weaker than me? There is no way you should be able to stand there let alone function under this amount of reiatsu. So, tell me, how are you still standing?"

He watched as several things happened all at once: the brat finished drawing his sword and held it with the blade of the sword in his left hand paralleling his arm and the pommel pointed towards the ground, the tip above his left shoulder indiscernible from the black duster he was wearing, the blade of the sword in his right hand held off to his right in a traditional null stance with a slight downward angle to it, the kanji character for 'Sacrifice' burning with the same inner white light in the same location as 'Honor' was on the other sword, closed his eyes, and bowed his head. For a moment Byakuya thought that maybe his reiatsu was starting to affect the brat and when the hell did he draw the other sword, anyway, but that thought disappeared as he watched the brat lift his head back up, in place of the smile was an emotionless mask that sent a chill down Byakuya's spine and was perfectly matched by the brat's voice, "Because," the brat's eyes snapped open, no longer the dark blue that they normally were, but an inhuman black that consumed even the whites of his eyes with silver six-bladed stars centered over where the pupils of his eyes would be, "I am _stronger_ than you, Byakuya-san."

When the brat's eyes had snapped open, Byakuya had suddenly felt like he had a thousand blades cutting through his body, so strong was the brat's killer intent that Byakuya suddenly had a name for the strange feeling he sensed twisting his stomach into knots: Fear, pure unbridled Fear. Byakuya was forced to take a step backwards from the brat, who suddenly seemed far more formidable than he did a few moments ago. The brat spoke again in a flat, matter-of-fact tone that sent a chill down Byakuya's spine, "You may want to draw your sword now."

Byakuya was about to ask the brat why should he when the brat _disappeared_ in shunpo only to reappear in front of Byakuya bringing the sword in his left hand up in an upper cut, trying to bisect him from right hip to left shoulder. He only had an instant to react as the Shihoin attacked. The two blades met with a screech of metal on metal and a clap of thunder that sent a shockwave across the clearing and into the first few rows of trees. He was stunned by the force that the brat was able to put into the swing, even though he was only using his left hand on his sword's hilt as he was forced to grip Senbonzakura's hilt with both hands. Even then, the force of the blow caused Byakuya to lift off the ground and fly backwards several yards, forcing him to throw his body into a back flip to land on his feet and slide a few more yards to slow down and stop. He didn't have a moment to recover as the Shihoin lunged at him, this time slashing his right hand sword at an angle from Byakuya's left shoulder to right hip, forcing Byakuya to turn and bring his zanpaktou up to meet the descending sword.

Again the two swords met with a screech of steel against steel and a clap of thunder accompanied by a second shockwave. Again Byakuya was forced backwards, this time sliding backwards a good fifty feet before putting his left hand down so that he could halt his slide and prepare for the next assault which came almost immediately. The Shihoin brat came at him for a third time. This time he swung with the sword in his right hand in a wide horizontal arc from Byakuya's right to left. As Byakuya moved to block the black blade, he felt the barest of tugs along the right side of his rib cage from front to back. This time, Byakuya used shunpo to avoid the horizontal attack and watched as the brat's horizontal slash ended with the tip of the blade pointing off to his right. He was stunned as he watched an almost visible arc of air sail all the way into the trees on the opposite end of the clearing, cutting several of the ancient trees in half before the shockwave died a couple hundred feet into the forest. Byakuya felt a chill creep down his spine as he visually estimated that the path of destruction had to be a few hundred feet in length and some fifty feet wide at its narrowest point and just widening to what must be a couple hundred feet with the arc of air died. He thought, _how could anyone produce that kind of shockwave just by swinging their sword?_

Byakuya's musings were cut short as cold steel kissed the side of his neck and he heard the brat's voice behind him even as he still saw the brat standing where he had been with his sword off to his right at end of the long gash he had just created, "I told you Byakuya-san: to have a chance in this fight you need to release your bankai. Also, you might want to get that cut looked at."

He was about to ask what the brat meant when he felt sudden relieving of built up pressure along the right side of his rib cage, causing him to look down just as the spurt turned into a slow waterfall of blood commencing at a shallow cut on his right side.

Byakuya watched as the image of the brat in front of him seemed to disappear in shunpo. He heard the brat chuckle mirthlessly behind him, "Well, that's the longest one of my shinsoku after-images has lasted, I must be getting faster."

He used the brat's moment of distraction to flash step away from him and turn to face the brat again, his left hand reaching across his body in an effort to staunch the blood oozing from the intentionally non-lethal cut on his right side. As Byakuya looked at the brat, he noticed the cold glimmer that danced in those inhuman eyes and realized that the brat was enjoying this fight. He thought, _well, of course the brat is enjoying the fight, he has the upper hand at the moment. He won't have it for long, though._

Byakuya smiled at the Shihoin brat, "You want to see my bankai so bad, fine. I will show you my bankai. Just remember when you are standing before whatever gods you pray to: you wanted this."

Byakuya then straightened up to his full height and squared his stance into a typical null stance with his feet shoulder-width apart and brought his sword up in front of him at arm's length with the blade pointed towards the ground. He held that stance for a few moments before he released the sword, dropping it towards the ground and saying in a matter-of-fact tone, "Bankai."

Byakuya knew what the brat was seeing: the world around them going dark, Senbonzakura falling in slow motion, the sword disappearing into the ground as ripples like on a pond's surface radiated from where the sword reached the ground, and the twin rows of five hundred twenty-foot tall katana blades rising from the ground in slow motion. Byakuya said, "Senbonzakura Kageyoshi (Vibrant Display of a Thousand Cherry Blossoms)."

As he said the words, the twin rows of swords glowed with a pinkish light for a moment before all one thousand blades shattered simultaneously into millions of cherry blossom petal-like blades floating in the air around him. He smiled, his confidence rapidly returning, "You wanted to see my bankai. Now I will etch its existence into your very bones and prove to all that the Kuchiki Clan is superior."

With that, Byakuya brought his open right hand up and directed it towards the Shihoin brat. He felt Senbonzakura's petal-like blades respond instantly as he heard a rushing sound that accompanied the massive, almost solid tendrils flow past him and towards the Shihoin in front of him. He mentally had the blades surround the Shihoin to form an almost complete sphere over ten feet in diameter so that there was no escape for the brat and said in a superior tone, "Now do you see how I am superior to you in every way."

Byakuya didn't wait for a response as he closed his right hand into a fist, causing the globe of pink petal-like blades to constrict inward instantly towards their target. He watched as just before the first blade reached the Shihoin brat, Byakuya heard the brat whisper something above the sound of the blades rushing inwards, "Hiten Mitsurugi: Ryuumeisen (Dragon's Howl Flash)."

As soon as he finished naming the technique, a shockwave blew outwards from the epicenter of the globe that the blades of Senbonzakura had formed, carrying the blades of Byakuya's zanpaktou away as if on a strong wind. Byakuya was forced to open his right hand into an open palm with his fingers pointed to the side in an effort to shield his face an instant before the petal-like blade ridden shockwave reached him. When it did reach him, Byakuya heard a deafening sound that sounded like what he thought a dragon's roar would sound like, a piercing howl that seemed to cut straight through him and caused that almost forgotten feeling of fear to return. The dragon's roar that was carried by the shockwave almost distracted Byakuya from the fact that blades from his own zanpaktou were slicing through his right arm from wrist to elbow, reducing the lower part of his right arm into a useless and bloody mess of severed and slashed muscle and skin. The Kuchiki also felt several other blades cut him at various points of his person: his left cheek, shoulder, horizontally along the length of his left arm, the sides of his body, even a few blades piercing his chest and abdomen.

As the shockwave passed him, Byakuya felt his blood pouring out of the massive number of open wounds on his person, but he was not deterred as he brought his left arm up to direct the blades back towards his target. He sensed and watched as the petal-like blades of his zanpaktou responded instantly, reversing their course to attack the Shihoin brat again. Kuchiki almost felt a sense of satisfaction that he had such command over his zanpaktou until he realized that several thousand of the blades that had been blown past the tree line at the edges of the clearing were returning in such a way as to attack the tree where his fiancee and her team were standing along with Retsu Shihoin-taichou.

Before he could do anything, Byakuya heard someone bellow from the other side of the tree, directly in the path of the blades, "KAZESUGA TENSHO (Wind's Fang Heavenly Slash)!"

As the attack name was finished, Byakuya along with everyone else saw a brilliant white arc of reiatsu be released and impact the impending mass of Senbonzakura blades, causing their direction to change and avoid the people standing in the tree behind the black duster-clad Shihoin that had fired the attack. After a few moments, Byakuya felt the shockwave from the sword swing at the same time he heard the peal of thunder that was the sound that the boy's blade made when releasing the attack. He didn't have time to think about it as suddenly the brat was in the air several dozen feet above him, with 'Honor' drawn and held above his head in both hands.

Byakuya looked up and saw the afterimage of the Shihoin boy in the tree disappear, a clear indication that the boy had used shinsoku again. He was transfixed as the brat seemed to hang motionless, the bottom half of his duster floating around him in the air. Kuchiki didn't even blink as the boy suddenly appeared on the ground in front of him, kneeling with the tip of his sword a paper's width away from touching the ground at Byakuya's feet, the brat's duster hem settling to the ground around the brat. He heard the brat whisper, "Hiten Mitsurugi: Ryuutsuisen (Dragon's Hammer Flash)."

Just as the brat finished naming the technique, Byakuya felt an itching sensation that went from just inside his left shoulder all the way to midway down his left thigh at the same instant he saw a flash of black steel that went from where the now afterimage of the brat was disappearing in the air above him to where the tip of his sword was now, passing through the same area of his body where he felt the itching sensation. A moment later, a loud _BOOM_ rang out at the same time Byakuya was thrown backwards, blood spraying from the wound that he had just received, and riding the shockwave of the brat's sword's passing. After a few seconds of flying backwards, Kuchiki felt his breath be driven from his lungs as his back hit a large boulder at the edge of the clearing. Stars exploded in his vision as his head connected with the boulder, also causing his ears to start ringing. His entire body seemed to go numb as he fell to his knees like a sack of potatoes being dropped from a worker's shoulder, his life's blood draining out of him at an alarming rate. Byakuya felt the hilt of his zanpaktou reform in his right hand and looked down to see the hilt with half of the tsuba and blade broken off and missing. He watched as in slow motion the half a sword fell from his nerveless fingers to clatter to the ground.

As he was watching his blood soak into the hilt of his sword thinking that he really needed to get it cleaned off before the stains became permanent, a shadow fell over Byakuya. He looked up at the figure standing above him and found his eyes met with the now midnight blue eyes of the Shihoin brat. Byakuya watched as the brat knelt down in front of him and while using a piece of cloth from one of the pockets on his pants to pick up Senbonzakura, carefully clean both the blade and hilt, and return the broken sword to its sheathe on Byakuya's side respectfully. The ringing in Byakuya's ears seemed to clear up after a few more moments.

The Shihoin brat spoke, "You fought well, Byakuya-san. I have to admit that your bankai is quite impressive. With some more practice, you could truly master it. It was an honor to cross blades with you today, Kuchiki-sama."

Byakuya watched in silence as the Shihoin heir rose and turned to begin walking away. For some reason, Kuchiki felt his anger rise again at the simple and final dismissal that he felt like trying to rise to continue the fight. As he struggled to rise, he watched the brat stop some ways away from him and say, a gentle warning in his voice, "Stay down Kuchiki-san. This fight is over."

Byakuya chose to ignore the warning in both the boy's eyes, as he was now looking back over his left shoulder at him, and his voice. As he managed to get one foot under him, Byakuya heard the brat give him a slightly stronger warning, "Byakuya-san, stay down please. I don't want to hurt you any further."

Byakuya scoffed at that comment as he shakily rose to his feet, "How dare you order me what to do, Shihoin-scum? Do you have any idea who I am?"

Kuchiki looked at the brat as he slowly turned to face him again, a white fire beginning to dance along the brat's body, highlighting every little detail on the Shihoin's person. The look in the brat's eyes should have given Kuchiki a warning about what was going to happen if he continued to push the subject, but he ignored it and pushed on, reaching for the broken blade of his zanpaktou. The brat gave a cold chuckle that caused Byakuya's blood to run cold as he spoke softly, "Do I have an idea of who you are? I know exactly who you are."

With that the white flames that were dancing along the brat's body turned into a full blown inferno accompanied by a dragon's roar that turned into a low rumbling growl that everyone in the clearing could hear as the air became so heavy with reiatsu that it forced Byakuya into a prone position on the ground in front of the brat, he felt as if his bones were being ground into dust under the weight…

* * *

 **Tier**

Tier gasped as everyone around her heard the dragon's roar and subsequent growl that continued as Kenshin released the full force of his reiatsu, forcing every captain, senior jounin, and even the Hokage to their knees, while forcing several of the genin and unranked samurai to pass out under the weight as the air became heavy with reiatsu and almost felt like it would scorch her lungs. The tree beneath her feet groaned under the force being exerted by Kenshin's reiatsu. She felt the killer intent, anger, and pain in his reiatsu. She looked at the young man she admired with concern, _Kenshin_ …

* * *

 **Byakuya**

Byakuya was stunned at the force that this brat's reiatsu was exerting as the brat spoke, his voice ice cold, "You are nothing more than an arrogant, self-righteous pretty boy who believes that he can get what he desires by standing on others' backs. You believe that just because of your bloodline that you are more powerful than anyone else and that everyone else should bow to you. You use your clan's name to get whatever the fuck you want without regards to who you hurt or what you betray. I am tired of your type and have not patience for them."

Byakuya thought that the boy was done but the boy continued his rant, "You assume that just because someone does not flaunt their power that they do not have it in the first place. You place all the value in _power_ without the understanding that power is only half of it, the tide without the moon. You want power for the sake of power and do not want the knowledge or understanding of that power that comes with training to use that power. You ignore the spirit of your zanpaktou and seek to only gain power for yourself without understanding that power is only half of what you need to be an officer let alone a lieutenant or captain!"

Byakuya watched in horror as the boy stepped forward, reaching to draw his sword again…

* * *

 **Tier**

Tier watched as Kenshin moved towards the Kuchiki heir and reached for one of his swords, his killer intent and reiatsu rising to a fevered pitch. She knew in that instant that she needed to do something. Without thinking she acted…

* * *

 **Byakuya**

Byakuya watched as the brat's left hand wrapped around the hilt of the sheathed Honor. The boy's smile broke into that trademark psychotic grin as he tensed his muscles in preparation to draw his sword when a blonde, white-clad female samurai with an unusually shaped zanpaktou strapped to her upper back appeared out of shunpo before the brat and wrapped him in a hug, burying her face in his chest as she said in a voice full of pain, "Kenshin, stop. You've already won the match. It's over. Don't let him force you to do something that you will regret. Please, stop this, you're scaring me."

He watched in stunned amazement as the brat wrapped the young girl in a tight hug and lowered his head to where his cheek rested on the top of the girl's head, the tension melting out of the brat's body as he whispered with longing in his voice, "Tia."

Byakuya was stunned again as the brat's reiatsu plummeted back to the level that it had been at before their match had begun. As he watched, the brat and the girl turned and walked away from where Byakuya lay broken. Just then movement to his right caught Byakuya's attention as Abe-sensei appeared out of shunshin. Byakuya watched as the proctor looked between the Shihoin heir and himself before declaring loud enough for all to hear, "The winner of the first match is Kenshin Shihoin!"

He watched as the Shihoin heir bowed respectfully to Abe-sensei and said, "Arigato, Abe-sensei."

The Kuchiki heir then watched as the black duster clad samurai and the blonde samurai then used shunpo to disappear from the field just as the medical team was reaching him. As they gently put him on the stretcher to carry him away for immediate medical attention, Byakuya turned his thoughts inward, _Senbonzakura, can you hear me?_

The answer was a quiet chuckle inside his mind, **"** **Of course. The question is: are you willing to listen?"**

Byakuya was about to answer as unconsciousness finally claimed him.

* * *

 **A/N: Another chapter done. Sorry for the wait. As always leave me a review and let me know that you think or if you have questions!**


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